Bringing New Life To Old Crayons

I've been saving an entire plastic storage container of broken crayons since my classroom days. I really wanted to melt them down and make new crayons with them, but was a bit worried they would be harder than I thought. I pictured melted wax all over my kitchen resembling the random crayons left in my car during the hot Texas summers. Like little puddles of miniature colored snowmen that got too much sun.

We started by sorting our crayons. We have been talking a lot about rainbows and my youngest is still learning the colors, so this was a great way to incorporate those skills. He wasn't the best sorter, but my daughter was a huge help! We put each color into a clear plastic cup, and they played while I peeled and chopped the crayons. This was by far the longest part, but slicing the label with a box cutter (since I couldn't find my craft knife) made the process much faster.

Once we had all the crayons chopped the kids helped fill the silicone mold. There were six spaces for each of the four shapes, so this mold was perfect for making all of our colors!

Once all of our crayons were in, we (carefully!) moved the mold to a cookie sheet. It definitely would have been smarter to do this first.

We set the oven on 200 degrees and baked them maybe 20 minutes. We checked them often and ended up adding a few more pieces to each section as they melted. It went so much faster than I thought it would!

We pulled them out as soon as they looked fairly melted. I wanted the "chunky" look with different shades of each color. We took them out and let them cool for about an hour and a half. I definitely should have let them cool a little longer, since they still felt warm and a few of them came out less than perfect, but I was really impatient to see the results!

They still came out so much easier than I thought they would! The kids loved seeing the results. and couldn't wait to use them! We put them in this fun box we found and plan on taking them camping with us over St. Patrick's Day!

Have you ever made recycled crayons? What is your favorite tip for making them fun and easy?

Year Round Centers With Seasonal Cards

I love being able to use the same activities more than once. Not only does it make my life easier, but the Littles are able to work on them whenever they want since they are already familiar with them. But we also like to change things up and match our activities to the seasons.

 I began making themed alphabet and letter shapes for each season and holiday and found so many uses for them. I even wrote a post about my Valentine's themed heart letters and numbers and all the ways we learned with them. 

While they are super easy to use all on their own, I wanted some activities the kids could use a bit more on independently as they grow. I came up with some more "structured" centers that guide them and build on what they already know. There are also ideas for using the number and letter cards for activities like the alphabet display above and the letter and number forming practice shown here.

One of the easiest activities is the counting mat. We use the large sized number cards and count out matching seasonal objects onto it. You could also use the smaller size and count the object on the page. There are also ten and twenty frame mats to help with learners who are just starting to count and need a bit more help.

My oldest already knows how to count, but this activity teaches multiple representations of each number. She chooses a number card, counts concrete objects, and finds the matching picture, word, tally, ten frame, and number line. This is the perfect activity for the number of the day!

It can also be a differentiated center by mixing the pieces for a few different numbers and letting the kids sort them. They could even work together in groups to do this.

We are starting to explore the ways numbers work together, so I made this number bonds mat to introduce the idea of fact families. We use a large card to represent the larger number, count that many objects onto it, and break that into two different amounts. Then we match those with the smaller number cards.

 I also made some addition and subtraction mats to practice these concepts in a concrete way. She draws two numbers and counts the correct number of objects for each. (In this case holiday m&m's, because who doesn't get a bit more motivated when chocolate is involved?) Then she moves the objects from both boxes to the other side and counts them together to find the total, and picks the matching number card.

We also made a subtraction mat that works in the same way. She picks two cards, putting the largest in the first box and counting the correct number of m&m's. Then she moves the number of objects in the second box according to that number card. The remaining objects from the first box get moved to the last box to find the answer, and the correct number card gets matched with it.

My oldest also knows most of her letters, but we are working on letter sounds right now, so this is one of our favorite activities. It seems simple, but it is so helpful! We pick a letter card for our mat and start with the objects in our letter bin. Then we walk around searching for other objects that start with the same sound. This is perfect for the letter of the day or week!

We used this word families activity to look at all the words we could create by choosing a rime card and switching out just the first letter. It was also a great introduction to rhyming words.

This same activity can be used for older learners to explore making words on their own. It even comes with a recording sheet to turn in or to laminate so kids can practice writing the words they make.

There is also a spelling practice mat to help with spelling sight words, names, vocabulary words, etc. Any word card can be added in the blank square and the kids use their alphabet cards to build it.

These make great hands-on activities or centers to practice the basic concepts that are so important to foundational learning. With the activities being able to be used all year, they are perfect for students who need a little more practice or for review. Keep the same centers and just switch out the cards for your current theme! You can find these centers in my TeacherspayTeachers store. The bundle includes all current letter and number cards as well as any that will be added in the future, or you can get just the centers by themselves. 

What other centers would you like to see for these cards?