Category Archives: Crayons
Crayon Cups
This is how we ended up deciding to store our crayons!
We switched them into the cups that were holding the glue, scissors, and pencil and put the glue and scissors into the plastic containers. Works much better and these cups (from IKEA–6 for $2.99!!) hold 24 crayons plus the “fat” Ticonderoga pencils!
Much better!! The cups kept getting knocked over and the lids weren’t staying on, so everything is great now! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Crayon Boxes
I bought these plastic containers at our Dollar Tree to hold our crayons in this year. They worked great…except when the kids went to put them away, the lids kept falling off and the crayons would spill into the bottom of the organizer.
I think this idea would work better with different containers, but stay tuned later this week to see how we solved this problem! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Poster Markers
I’ve been using the Mr. Sketch scented markers for a few years now to write on my chart paper. They were fine for awhile, but they dried out quickly from too much use on the paper. I found these Crayola Poster markers at Jo-Ann’s a few weeks ago and I’ve been using them ever since!
They have a wide tip, but if you turn it around, you also have a small tip you can use. The colors are really bright and the kids can see them all; even the yellow. They are more of the “Brights” colors than the primary colors, but I really like using them so far and they haven’t started to wear out yet–and I use them a lot! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
More Crayons
We took a trip to IKEA earlier this week, and I picked up some new ice cube trays:
I got all five that are pictured because they were only .99¢ each. I used the black trays to make some new crayons out of the all those crayons my kids peeled on the last day of school. I found a neat pattern for some crayon wallets that I want to make here. I needed to make some crayons to go in them, so it worked out great!
A few tips when making your new crayons:
I used these in the microwave in 1:30 increments. You will need to stir the crayons occasionally with a toothpick or kabob stick.
Make sure you stay near the microwave so that you can watch for melting of your mold or smoke coming from your wax.
Use Crayola crayons–they work the best (and not washable ones, they melt funny)
Put the mold in the freezer for 30 minutes after you take them out of the microwave to firm up. When you take them out of the freezer, let them sit for about 10 minutes to warm up to room temperature before trying to remove them.
I also got some new alphabet molds after seeing some posts on Pinterest. I’m going to use these in the oven instead of the microwave:
I’ll post pictures when I’m done with them! I can see making these for my kids at the beginning of the year at our Writer’s Work Station or to make words with! Plaster of paris–creating alphabet sidewalk chalk or letters for making words??
Kristen 🙂
LEGO minifigure crayons
My 7 year old is having his birthday on Saturday and it’s LEGO themed (his favorite!). When I was searching for some ideas about games we could play at his party, I came across this idea to make LEGO minifigure crayons. They can be done the old way–in the oven, but I had a silicone mold and I didn’t find any marks that indicated it was oven safe. I started researching ways to melt crayons in the microwave and came across these sites:
Making Microwave crayons in three steps
We got out J’s old crayons:
Then we cut them up into 1/4 slices and placed them into the LEGO minifigure mold:
This is what they look like after about 6-one minute intervals. I put them in for one minute then stirred with a toothpick and then repeated until they were completely melted.
After 20 minutes in the freezer, they were ready! I was really gentle with them when I was removing them, but some of them lost their heads. I put those back in the molds and microwaved them again to remelt the parts together. After another trip to the freezer, they are as good as new.
The mold makes 8 men at a time, so this takes a little while, but so fun! I even made some pink minifigures!
Some of the sites I saw suggested using the flexible ice cube molds that are available at IKEA for $1 or $2 each. They had some cute designs the last time I was there. We almost got them and then found out they weren’t oven safe, but now I need to go back and get them because I can use them in the microwave!! 🙂
Does anyone else have some ideas about other ways to make crayons?
We are going to make these in my toaster oven (using metal pans) next week with the old crayons we have been using all year–a great way to use them up and not throw them away! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 