What To Do With Broken Crayons? - Melt Them!
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If you have kids, the chances are good that you have crayons in your house. And if you have crayons in your house, you probably have some broken ones. I went through our wipes container of crayons recently and came up with a pretty big pile of broken crayons and larger, yet worn down ones.
For my kids, once the tips have worn down on the crayons, they think they are unusable. Why would they ever consider peeling a crayon? Well, I decided to make coloring a little more fun for the kids and find a use for all the crayons that no one would touch.
While watching the kids do their school work I proceeded to peel those nubs and break the crayons up into little pieces. I then divided up the crayons among metal muffin tins. I tried to mix up the colors pretty well, and I included all the colors I had in each tin. While I was doing this I let the oven preheat to 350. When I had enough crayons peeled and broken I turned the oven off and placed the muffin tin in the center.
You will want to check the crayons frequently, just turning the oven light on should work. Once the crayons start to look a little soupy remove them from the oven and place them immediately in the freezer. Freeze for 30-45 minutes and remove. The new crayons should pop out easily. Drop them into your hand though, I made the mistake of popping them onto our hard counter and a couple of them cracked. Once back to room temperature they are ready to color with.
My kids have had a lot of fun coloring pictures and cut outs of leaves with these crazy crayons. You never know what color will end up on your paper, because they are all mixed together. You could make this with only a couple of colors instead of all the colors. You could make a crayon for each season even. Oranges, yellows, reds and browns for fall, blues, whites, purples for winter, etc. You could even let the kids design their own.
So now we have no reason to throw out unwanted crayons. Melting these crayons together was easy and fun and didn't cost anything. If you have broken crayons in your house, you should try it or better yet have the kids make them themselves.
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Comments
Oooh, all the crayons I've thrown out in the past! I'm sure the kids have great fun with these crayons and it would be a great way of limiting the pallette but ensuring the colour scheme is effective.
I love the idea of the leaves too, I would imagine they look really good.
A friend of mine uses the old crayons to add colour to candles that she makes. Maybe thats something you could do with them when they're a little older.
I've tried this sort of thing before but the colors always ran together. I was out looking for ideas today and found a cool site that with pictures and instructions for layered crayons. I can't wait to try it, though you would like it too.
OMG, why haven't I thought about this when I was little? This is so clever. And the surprise factor for the kids when they see what color would turn up, it's priceless! Thank you for an excellent hub. I'll tell my sister about this so she'll try melting crayons for my nephews! I bet they'll love it :)
cool mann
We used to melt broken crayons into candles. Great hub and thanks for sharing.
What a great idea! I have tons of broken crayons, they seem to multiply themselves... This sounds like a fun idea to do I am sure my children will be deligthed.
Very cool idea. I'm sure my granddaughter will love it!
My mother used to put a piece of tin foil over a warming tray and let us draw or paint as the crayons melted on the foil. Better for slightly older kids so they won't get burned by the tray.
Another great kid- friendly activity your readers would enjoy is to grow a TickleMe Plant from seeds and then watching the plant MOVE when Tickled! As a first grade teacher I no longer plant Lima beans, as the growing of this interactive plant, proved to be much more exciting and educational for my student's.
I found my supplies for a classroom kit at www.ticklemeplant.com but they also sell individual greenhouses and even party favors, with everything you need to grow your own TickleMe Plant from seeds. I assure you your kids will be more excited about gardening, and its just fun to watch the expressions of the faces of children (and even adults) when they see the plant close its leaves and droop when tickledyou should try it i did it for my 7th grade science project and it was awesome i am 13 and i even liked it.
What a great idea.my daughter thought to place them into playdoe molds. Now all she wants to do is color with a crayon shaped as a banana.
Thank you
We are trying it now! Great project for this snowy day! (my kids are peeling and putting them in the muffin tin.)
This is such A wonderful idea my kids love it it bring joy to me and them perfect 4 rainy or snowy days
my kiddo's and i are cleaning out the crayon box and making this project tonight! Thanks!
trish1048 says:
16 months ago
This brought back a childhood memory for me. When I was a kid, my mom and I would 'grate' the broken crayons. We would then place a pretty leaf on a sheet of waxpaper, sprinkle our 'rainbow' of shaved crayons all over it, place the 2nd sheet on top, then take a warm iron and iron the waxpaper sheets together. The crayons made a colorful background for the leaf placed between the sheets of waxpaper. I then hung my 'works of art' in my room or on the fridge.
An added benefit is saving money! Thanks for sharing.