I don’t know about you, but I swear my kids like breaking crayons more than actually coloring with them! I feel like I am buying a new box of crayons every other month and throw away a full box of broken crayons every other month!
this valentines day weekend we decided to fill our who weekend with all sorts of activity such as sewing, baking cookies, sending out valentines cards to our friends and making our own chocolates in molds I had bought at Michael’s. Rowan got makeup molds and wilder of course wanted the cars! These silicon molds ended up being perfect to use for recycling our many broken crayons and also turned out to be a fun activity for the kids because they were ALLOWED to break the crayons even more and rip off the labels! Win-win!
Keep in mind, you can also do this exact activity without molds. cupcake pans work just as well, and the kids lov getting to color with rainbow tiedye crayons that are funny shapes! I find they almost color with their recycled crayons more than their actual crayons! again, win-win!
Have fun and of course be safe melting these! would hurt like heck to have melted crayon wax spilled on ya!
supplies:
broken crayons
pan with compartments or silicone oven safe molds
directions:
step 1- preheat oven to 200°
step 2- remove all paper and labels from crayons and break them up as small as possible. you may need to chop them smaller depending on your mold sizes. I used a kitchen knife for mine. cut carefully and watch out for little fingers!
step 3- fill up your molds or pan with assortments of colors. keep in mind when they melt, once the wax settles into the nooks and crannies of your mold, it will harden thinner, so add a little extra crayon bits where you can!
step 4- bake for 10 minutes at a time, checking often till you see no visible crayon shape left, only liquid. pull out and let cool completely.
step 5- pop out your cooled molds and color away!
