My Preschoolers!
During art time, we recycled crayons. This time of year is perfect to make them....cause if you are like me, you love a new box of crayons (especially when they are so cheap)....so, time to take the paper off the old ones, break them up, and melt them down to make fun multi-colored crayons!
If you are doing this with kids, I suggest taking the paper off ahead of time.....it's a bit time consuming. If you want to make the process go a lot quicker, take a razor knife and slice down the side of the crayon and the paper will peel right off. You can do this project several different ways.....I had the kids sort all the crayons by color first and then they each chose several crayons to break up and put in their muffin tin.....depending on how thick you want them or how big your muffin tin is, depends on how many crayons you use. We also made mini crayons with a mini muffin tin and sorted the crayons by color.
Heat your oven to 250 degrees and watch closely.....once the crayons are melted, take them out and they will harden. If you leave them in too long, the colors will start to mix.
Once they are cool, just pop them out of the muffin tins....sometimes you have to slam them down on your counter a few times to get them out! I have seen others use the silicone baking molds and am thinking about investing in a couple to use for this and other projects.....you can find some here. These crayons are perfect for little hands to color with and would also make cute party favors or small gifts....just wrap up in clear treat bags and tie with a bow.
The kids were so excited to use them! It was so fun to watch them use the crayons.....they realized they could turn the crayons different ways to make different colors on their paper!
Tracy
