This week, we worked on recycling our old broken crayons into rainbow crayons! Over the past few weeks, the children have been peeling the wrappers from the old crayons. This week, using the hammers, they broke the crayons into smaller pieces. (We also discovered that holding another paper overtop kept the broken pieces from flying around.) Next, they filled a muffin tin with the crayon pieces. Using a hot mitt, I held the pan over the fire for a minute until the wax melted. Then the pan was placed in a container of creek water to cool down. Finally, the new crayons were extracted and tested out! Everyone was able to take one home and a few were added to our art supplies.
To make these at home, you can use the oven. Preheat oven to 250 F, break up crayons and place in a muffin tin or silicon mold. (The smaller the pieces, the quicker they will melt.) Bake for 15-20 min until wax is melted. Remove to cool down. (It also suggested spraying the tin with cooking spray, but I just held it over the fire for a second to warm it up and they popped right out. )
Since we had the hammers, some children continued to work on the group hammer art. I love seeing how this changes each week.