This activity is a great way to teach kids the concepts of reduce, reuse, recycle. Instead of throwing away old crayon, they’ll be recycling them into empty Elmer’s glue sticks to create new crayons. Please note, this activity requires using a heating element (such as a stove), so adult supervision will be required.
Grades: K-4
Subjects: Art, Environment, Science
Activity Time: 1 Hour
Supplies
Directions
Rinse out the empty glue sticks. Make sure not to damage the stem inside the glue stick. Place the clean glue sticks on paper towels to dry completely.
Next, sort the old crayons by placing the pieces into groups according to colors. Peel the labels off of the crayons.
ADULT SUPERVISION REQUIRED: Heat some water in a pan so that you can melt the old crayons. A shallow pan works best. The water doesn’t have to boil to melt the crayons. Low heat for approximately 15 minutes. For younger children, an adult should perform this step.
While the water is heating, place crayon pieces into the salad dressing bottles according to colors. You can create multi-colored crayons by pouring different colored wax into the glue stick, but each bottle should contain the same (or nearly the same) color crayon pieces.
Place the salad dressing bottles with crayons into the pan with water and watch the crayons melt.
Pour the melted crayon wax carefully into the empty glue stick containers. Important note: At low heat, the salad dressing bottles should not be too hot but check and make sure before you let young children do the pouring.
Instruct the children not to twist the bottom of the glue stick until the wax has completely hardened. Once the wax is cool and hard, you can twist the bottom and your new crayons will be ready to use. Go ahead and use your new crayons to draw some colorful illustrations!
Additional Learning