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Jumbo Crayon Solar System Model

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When crayons break kids never seem to want to use them anymore. However, if you recycle them into something new, suddenly they are fun again!  We made a set of jumbo crayons by peeling and melting old broken crayons down in muffin tins. But not only that, we made crayon planets and turned them into the the solar system!

crayon solar system

How to Make Jumbo Crayons:

We had so much fun making these recycled jumbo crayons!  My kids thought it was really cool that we could make swirly colored crayons.

peeling broken crayons

You make the jumbo crayons by peeling all of your old broken crayons and sorting according to color into muffin tins. You’ll want to spray the pans with some oil first to help them pop out more easily. We have done them in both regular muffin tins and mini muffin tins. I like the mini ones a little better because you need less broken crayons.  Then you can make more colors!
recycled melted crayons

My kids actually really liked peeling the old crayons.  It was a little time consuming to peel them, but it really is a simple project overall. If you get your kids involved, it shouldn’t take too long.   I usually have to stop my kids from peeling crayons normally, so they were all in on this project.

You can mix all kinds of colors to make rainbow swirled crayons, or do them matching with each color on its own.

How to Melt Crayons:

To melt the crayons, you just bake the crayons at 250 degrees Fahrenheit until all the way melted. It takes about 10-12 minutes. Let the crayons cool completely, and then pop them out.
How to melt crayons- melted crayon art
If you want them a little more swirled, use a toothpick to lightly swirl the melted crayons while they are still liquid.
recycled jumbo crayons
Want another melted crayon project?  See our Melted Crayon Art Heart Garland. 

Jumbo Crayon Planets:

If you want to make the crayon planets, look at some solar system pictures to see the colors of the planets. We picked our crayon colors for each planet based on these ones that we had.  Our sun was 2 tins full stacked on top of each other.  These planet models are from our Space Unit.
crayon planets solar system model
We made our solar system on a jumbo piece of paper, but that part is just for fun.  You could make it without the paper.
recycled jumbo crayons as planets
It was fun for my kids to help draw the solar system and add in the planets. It makes this craft into a cool learning idea!
solar system model with jumbo crayons
Aren’t they fabulous?! We loved them!
Jumbo Crayon solar system model

See More Solar System Ideas:

Homemade Thermometer Science Experiment
Growing Borax Crystals on Pipe Cleaners

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Comments

  1. learning table says

    These are great! My youngest would love this project–he loves coloring with crayon rocks, and these would be just as easy to hold. What a neat way to recycle all those bits and pieces.
    🙂

    Reply

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