Homemade Crayons

I have been trying to think of something I can give my students for Christmas and for Valentine's day. I was searching around the blogging world and found a great idea and the best part about it was that I had all the supplies and didn't have to spend a cent.

In my class I have a bucket of old crayons. I always find crayons laying around my classroom so I throw them in the bucket or students put their old crayons in the bucket that they don't want anymore. Most of the crayons are broken and very dull. Thus, creating a difficult time coloring with the crayons. I thought it would be fun to "recycle" the crayons and make something useful again. I found this idea over at Making Memories... One fun thing after another.

Here are the instructions to making cute homemade crayons. They are so easy, fun, and exciting!

* Make sure all the paper is removed (Garrett discovered that removing the paper is easiest by slicing the paper with an x-acto knife).

* You can use any kind of baking pan. I used a silicone one that has six heart shapes in them. (Thanks to my mother-in-law)

* Add like colors. I think it looks neat when you mix the same colors but one color is a darker shade. It makes for a cool effect!

* Bake in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The bigger the pieces the longer the cooking time.

* Remove from the oven and let them cool completely!

* Once cool, pop them out of the pans.

I put two in a sandwich bag and tied a ribbon around them to give to my students. Hopefully they will appreciate them. I sure had fun making them.