Homemade Giant Crayon

I love brainstorming ways to combine gross motor development and art. Over the summer we had a blast with our Swing Painting and Broom Painting and now we are focusing on those large arm muscles by making a Homemade Giant Crayon. The process was a lot of fun and ended with the coolest crayon ever. So cool, my girls even brought it to their preschool today to show their friends.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A HOMEMADE GIANT CRAYON

lots of crayons (peeled)- we probably used about 100
non stick loaf pan- metal or silicone

TIME TO MAKE THE HOMEMADE GIANT CRAYON!

This was so much fun! First you need to collect a lot of crayons. We probably had 100 total. If you are doing this in a school setting this is a great way to make a home-school connection. Send home a letter asking for broken crayons. When you make the homemade giant crayon it will be little pieces of each child’s home all together. At home we just collected broken crayons and the ones from restaurants in a bag until we had enough. Don’t have enough crayons? You can always buy some here.

Next you will need to peel the paper wrappers off. Save your fingernails! Here is a tip: soak the crayons in warm water for a few minutes and the wrappers will slide right off. Don’t skip this step! Dry them off.

Break the larger crayons in half and put them all in a loaf pan and bake at 275 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes.

When the crayons are melted and look like “crayon soup”, as my girls described it, carefully take the loaf pan out of the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes.

Next place the loaf pan in the freezer for approximately 20-30 minutes. When you take it out tip the loaf pan over and the homemade giant crayon should easily pop out.

Now it is time to play. I taped long pieces of white butcher paper (one of our favorite art supplies!) on the table and on a wall so that there were two ways to explore the crayon. At one point the crayon broke into two pieces. It was an awesome Beautiful Oops! moment as we loved exploring how the crayons looked on the inside. Isn’t it gorgeous?