How to Melt Crayons in Muffin Tins
Good crayons are soon worn down. When they're down to little stumps, or even just to experiment with creating new crayon colors, melting crayons together is a cost-effective way to get the most of them. Use the crayon-melting activity to teach young children about color theory, helping them to understand what happens when different colors are mixed, and how to make colors lighter with white crayons or darker with black ones.
Instructions
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1
Remove any paper from the crayons and break them up into small pieces.
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2
Spray the muffin tins with vegetable oil, then fill each tray segment with broken up crayon pieces. Mix colors that match or create new colors. For instance, put red crayon pieces in with yellow ones to make orange crayons, or blue in with red to make purple.
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3
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F, then place the full muffin tins into the oven. Bake for seven to eight minutes.
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4
Remove the muffin tin from the oven with oven gloves when the crayons have melted together. Give them a stir with a toothpick to mix the colors, then let them cool.
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5
Wait until the muffin tins are completely cool, then tap the bottom of the tins to get the crayons out.
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Tips & Warnings
Make crayons that are more shallow or deeper by varying the amount of crayon pieces you put into the muffin tins. You don't need to to fill up the sections completely.
Speed up the cooling process by putting the muffin tins in the freezer when it has cooled slightly.
Supervise young children when using an oven. They will enjoy making new crayons out of old ones, but limit their involvement to choosing which colors to mix or helping to tap the finished crayons out once they're cool.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jeffrey Hamilton/Photodisc/Getty Images
