Almost Homemade Crayons

Winter is quickly approaching and I anticipate several snow days.  When I was teaching, I would often times go to school to work on a snow day...it is amazing what you can accomplish when students aren't there.:)  But this year I won't be going to school and I will have THREE kids to keep entertained for what may be a LONG winter.  Fun, indoor activities will be a must for our household---paints, play-doh, board games, arts and crafts.  Abby was out of school on Monday for Veterans Day and it was very cold and rainy---almost like a trial run for the winter.  So.....we decided to make homemade crayons...well, almost homemade!!!

  

1.  Simply peel the paper off of old and broken crayons.  (It helps if they are all the same brand.)  We discovered that cutting the paper with an exacto knife helped with the removal of the paper.)

2.  Line a cookie sheet or baking pan with aluminum foil and sprayed it with cooking spray.  You can also use a mini muffin pan.  You can group crayons by like colors or randomly.

3.  Place the the crayons on the pan.

4.  Place crayons in a 300 degree oven and bake for 8-9 minutes.

 

Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

5.  Remove from oven.  Allow to cool for approximately 10 minutes.

6.  When the wax is still pliable, use cookie cutters to cut out random shapes or remove from the muffin pan.  

7.  Allow to cool completely before using.

8.  Have fun coloring!!

 

 

 All of the kids' names were written with the same crayon!!!

Things I may have done differently:

1.  Used small cookie cutters.  The crayons are less likely to break.

2.  Use a smaller pan so the crayons are thicker.

3.  I used regular sized crayons and the large size (for young kids).  They did not melt at the same time.

Rachel