"The 25 Posts of Christmas" Gift No. 16

   It's my first snow day as a teacher. Except it's more like a rainy, icy, incredibly yucky day. It's still an optional teacher's workday which sounded wonderful to me, but I'm not too sure if I want to drive on what the news is calling "sheets of ice."
   Despite the fact that I had the option of sleeping late today, my body seems to be used to the whole early to rise thing so, I was up at 5:30 today, ready to take on some cleaning and crafting. I washed a TON of dishes, made some Christmas treats, and then completed a craft project I wanted to share.
  I want to give my little kindergarteners a small gift for Christmas and I've been trying to decided what. A few of them have mentioned to me that they don't have crayons at home. This news made me so sad. It's so important for kids to be able to draw and create, and they do love doing it. So, I figured I'd give them each a pencil, eraser (cute Christmas ones of course), and crayons. I was looking for crayons to get them and I just couldn't find any small packs that would fit in their little gift bags and that wouldn't cost too terribly much. I decided too use the broken crayons in our classroom (we have a surplus of them) to make them some two-tones crayons. I haven't told my students what I'm making them, just that I need their broken crayons. When I let them know my need for broken crayons, it seemed that all the crayons they were currently using suddenly broke. Funny how things like that happen ;o)

Two-Toned Recycled Crayons

You will need:

• broken crayons, unwrapped
• a pot of boiling water
• ice trays dedicated to crafting
• tin can
• plastic knife or other tool for stirring that will not be used for food again

Step 1. Unwrap all your broken crayons.

Unwrapping them takes a looooong time.

Step 2. Sort all the crayons by color and break them into smaller pieces.

Step 3. Boil some water. Place the can(s) in the water and fill with one color. Start with the lighter colors and end with the darker colors. As the crayons melt, stir them to get rid of the lumps. 

Step 4. When they are smooth and melted poor the liquid crayons into the ice tray compartments. Allow the first color to cool before pouring the second one on top of it. 

Step 5. Put the ice trays in the freezer.

Step 6.  When the crayons are set remove the trays from the freezer, and bend them so the crayons pop out, just like ice cubes.

   Such a nice gift for kids. I can't wait to give them to my sweet little students. They'll be able to spend Christmas break coloring to their hearts' content. Every kids dream :o)