A Great Way to Make Use of All Those Broken Crayons

by Alicia Bodine, Contributing Writer

Image © Richie Girardin; Flickr.com

Place a large cookie tin at the front of your classroom and label it "Broken Crayons". At the beginning of the school year inform your students that you are going to teach them how to recycle their broken crayons that would normally get thrown in the trash. Have the students empty their broken crayons and crayon pieces no matter how small in to the cookie tin throughout the year. At the end of the year teach them to do the following craft:
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You will need the following items for this craft:

1. Old crayon pieces
2. Paper
3. Design
4. Marker
5. Copy Machine
6. Glue
7. Cheese grater
8. Several Tupperware containers​

Follow these steps to complete your recycled crayon project:

1. Bring in a few cheese graters and have some of the students help you grind up all of the crayons. You can separate the crayons by color and place each color in a separate Tupperware container. You can also have a container for a rainbow color.
2. Get out a piece of paper and a black marker. Draw a picture or a scene, but only draw the outline of it. This picture would depend on the age of the children in your classroom. Smaller children may appreciate a picture of a butterfly or an animal that has many colors. Older children may need a whole scene such as a garden or field of flowers. Just make sure the scene lends itself to using plenty of colors. A frog would not be a good idea unless all of the crayons you have are green.
3. Make copies of the picture you drew. There should be as many copies as you have students.
4. Hand out the copies and have students sit around a table that has all of the crayon shavings on it.
5. Teach the children to glue one section at a time and then place crayon shavings on it. Do this until all of the sections are complete.
6. Wait for the glue to dry and then allow the students to take the crayon shaving pictures home.. 

​Note: This article previous appeared on the Yahoo Contributor Network.