Crayons have been a staple of preschool classrooms for decades, and kids of all ages have loved them since they were first introduced over 120 years ago. The Crayola Division of Binney & Smith created a “dustless chalk” at the request of teachers all over the United States, and the invention was an immediate success. Today, teachers and parents alike keep a collection of crayons to keep kids entertained and encourage creativity. March 31st is National Crayon Day, so our team at Wollaston Child Care Center is sharing some ideas to celebrate!
Every day is crayon day with preschool kids, but we want to take a moment to celebrate on March 31st! Here are three activities to do with your kids.
Draw a Picture
Drawing with crayons is the obvious choice, and many kids do it every day. Drawing and coloring are great activities for preschoolers to practice and improve their fine motor skills while exploring their creativity. All you need are some crayons and some blank sheets of paper so your kids’ imaginations can run wild! Even if you opt for coloring over drawing, there’s still plenty of room for creativity. Embellish the pictures with your own drawings or use “unrealistic” colors.
Make a Sculpture
If you’re like most families, you have a collection of broken crayons. One of the great things about crayons is that you can still use them to draw or color if they’re broken. However, there are other ways to use them. Collect your broken crayons and use them to make a sculpture or mosaic. Let your kids glue the pieces together or have them arrange the pieces so an adult can melt them together.
Mold Crayon Shapes
Another way to repurpose your broken crayons is to mold them into new shapes. You can use silicon molds (like novelty ice trays) to reform your broken crayon pieces into brand-new crayons. Just remove the paper wrappers from the crayons, place the pieces in the mold, and put them in the oven at 250ºF for 15 to 20 minutes. After the crayon pieces have melted, remove the molds from the oven and let them cool at room temperature or in the freezer until the crayons are hard. Then, pop them out of the molds and color away! Experiment with putting different colored crayon pieces in the same mold to make multicolored crayons!
