Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Crayon

In this project, we made bugs by filing and melting crayons.

The procedure:
  • students decide what bugs they are going to make
  • over wax paper, file the side of a crayon keeping the shavings about an inch away from the edges
  • file as many colors as you would like to for your bug
  • you do need quite a bit of shavings so that once melted, there aren't any clear spots through the wax paper
  • carry the wax paper over to the hot iron
  • either press and release the iron to melt the crayons or press and glide so that the colors will smear or blend a bit
  • choose your bug template and trace around it on the melted wax paper
  • cut out your bug and glue it onto a piece of construction paper
  • cut around the bug making a border
  • add antae or legs


It was difficult to file the crayons. A few times they broke in half while filing them even though I did hold it the right way. It did take a lot of shavings to have enough color between the wax paper so that it would melt evenly. I decided to go with the warm colors of orange and yellow for spring and added a little pink. My other melting was a mix of brown and purple that I used for the body and the circles on the wings for contrast.

An extension activity for this would be to study how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. I would buy a kit so that the students could watch the caterpillars spin chrysalises and break out into butterflies.


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