Colour Me Happy - Making Recycled Crayons

I have been desperately trying to organise the kids playroom over the holidays.

I got some great tips on "de-cluttering" the kids colouring in items from 

"The Organised Housewife"

So whilst I was

Organising Textas and

Decluttering Kids Colouring Books

I suddenly found I now had these orphans

This poor little collection is the abandoned, no lids, odd assortment, broken crayon collection.

Some were salvagable, but the crayons!

I am sure they have been busy multiplying whilst we have been asleep!

Soooo.... a new holiday activity was born....

COLOUR ME HAPPY

MAKING RECYCLED CRAYONS!

STEP 1

You will need any silicone baking mould..

You can really use any baking moulds but I like silicone as they are easier to pop out the finished product!

This one was way too cute to pass up!  From "House" for $9.99

STEP 2

Ask your apprentice to peel all the paper off the outside of the crayons.

They love doing this!

You can recycle the paper!

You now have a whole variety of paper less crayons.

STEP 2

Break the crayons up into smaller pieces.

Another fun job for your apprentice!

If some thick crayons are hard to snap, Mum can cut them with a knife!

STEP 3

Fill your moulds with the broken crayon pieces!

You can mix colours or sort colours!

A great maths activity (sort and match!)

I am sure he is on to my "Sneaky teaching tips"

as he was adamant that they all had to be "rainbow" crayons!

STEP 4

Now you have something that looks like this!

Preheat your oven to 120 degrees

And "cook" for about 10 minutes or until you see that the crayons are melted.

I find it easier to place the moulds onto a baking tray.

It is much safer and easier to get them in and out of the oven this way!

You can use any shape or size baking tray!

This one is from BIG W $10

STEP 5

Once melted remove from oven to cool

If you are as impatient as me, Master O

you can cool them in the fridge for quicker results!

Once cool and hard, pop them out and....

Ta Da!!!!! New beautiful (and recycled) crayons!

They make great gifts!

I, Master O loved this activity soooo much that

I packaged up some butterfly moulds and crayons with some instructions and sent them as Easter Gifts to Master O's cousins!

Easter Eggs really don't travel well and I thought it may give them something to do these school holidays with all that built up "chocolate eating" energy!