Monday, October 27, 2008

Cray-Z CrayonZ

If your church is like most, you probably have a literal "mess" of useless broken crayon bits laying around. Instead of throwing them away, try this... 

Step 1: Gather your broken bits and peel off any leftover labels.
Step 2: Put the peeled pieces into muffin cups, filling each cup about half way (use liners to protect the tin if you like, or dedicate a tin for easier extraction and smoother edges)
Step 3: Bake the batch in a 325-degree oven for 5-8 minutes (or until the mixture is magnificently melty)
Step 4: Take them out, let them cool & harden... then color! 

before
  
 after

This is a fun activity you can do with your class, and it's a great way to conserve resources & save money. The end result is a cool collection of chunky cray-Z crayonz that your kids will love to color with. 

TIPS to TRY: 
- Group similar colors into each cup to keep your colors consistent, or mix things up to create custom color combinations
- Use different tin sizes & shapes... try using large muffin cups, minis, heart shapes, whatever!

1 comment:

Chris W said...

We did this on a large scale this year! We asked kids for two months to collect the crayons from their art teachers, preschools and friends. Then, we scheduled a Uganda Children's Service Project Day. We used the disposable Reynolds Heart Tin Cups from the dollar store to melt the crayons in. Once they cooled the adults used and electric drill to put a small hole in each heart. We strung a plastic string through each heart and made necklaces for our team to deliver to our sponsored children in Uganda East Africa. They turned out beautifully. We made 200 necklaces.