Tuesday, March 13, 2012

"New" Crayons





We have been sick, sick, and sick again in our house. Today I got desperate to find a way to keep the boys and myself busy and to use up a good bit of time. I remembered seeing something on Pinterest about making crayons for a Valentine activity and figured I could improvise. I always collect all of the boys old, broken crayons in an old wipe container we have. So, I got out the container and put the boys to work cleaning off the paper and breaking crayons. I think the thought of breaking the crayons was what got them excited to clean off the paper so diligently! I also got out a mini muffin pan and instructed them to mix up the colors and drop their broken crayons into the different parts. This step probably kept them busy for a good 30 minutes!

After our colors were all organized I warmed the oven to 110 degree Celsius (230 degrees Fahrenheit.) Once the oven was warm I let Ilkan pop in our pan and we set the timer for 15 minutes. The boys proceeded to play a game of soccer while the crayons were "baking" but the colors melting was a stopping point for them to observe once every few minutes. After 15 minutes the crayons were melted and even a little watery so Mommy was in charge of removing them from the oven and getting them set up to cool. We just left the pan on the counter to cool but you could probably put it in the refrigerator as well. We let our crayons cool for about 30 minutes before getting out the cutting board and banging the pan upside down to pop out the new crayons. Boys love anything you have to hit! Once the crayons were out we tried them out immediately and came up with some pretty cool artistic works. I think these crayons would be especially fun if you placed objects under a paper and used a rubbing technic to come up with different shapes. Ilkan is very excited to take the crayons to school tomorrow (hopefully he'll be well and able to go!!!) and share with his friends!