Recycled Crayons

My son was interested in making new crayons out of his old broken ones.  I’ve worked with melted crayon at summer camps, and used melted crayon wax in candy molds, but melting wax in a double boiler on the stove or possibly in the microwave and pouring hot wax is not kid friendly for my first grader.  Today I picked up a silicone baking mold with a 50% off coupon at the craft store and it worked beautifully.  My son had a hands-on experience without handling any hot wax and felt full ownership over his new star shaped crayons.  

Supplies:

• old broken crayons with wrappers removed
• silicone baking mold
• cookie sheet
• toothpicks

old crayons start melting

Detailed Instructions:

• Preheat your oven to 175 degrees.

• Peel the wrappers off and brake crayons into small pieces to fit the mold.

• Place pieces of crayon in the mold, set on cookie sheet.  (the mold will be very flexible, so it will sit on the cookie sheet throughout the melting and cooling process.)

• Melt crayons in oven for about 20 minutes until fully melted – place the cookie sheet and mold on the bottom shelf in the oven and turn on the light to allow your child to monitor the melting process.

• Carefully take the mold and cookie tray out of the oven.

• Pop any air bubbles that have come to the surface with a toothpick.  You may also swirl the colors with the toothpick to get a marbled effect.   

• Once the mold is cool enough to handle and the melted crayon has set, finishing setting crayons in the freezer for 10 minutes.

• After the crayon has set all the way through, pop the crayon out of the mold.

molten wax crayons hot from the oven

Enjoy drawing with your new crayons!