The Unplug theme of the week (HOT!) gave me the chance to pull out this activity, something we hadn’t done since last summer.
We melted crayons with our magnifying glass - and oh, what fun! (Yes, we also burned holes in leaves and lit small piles of dried maple seeds on fire too.)
As we assembled our materials, just crayons, a grater, paper and the magnifying glass, we waited for the hot, hot sun to peek back out from behind the cloud.
JediBoy grated some crayon bits onto a piece of paper. (Yes, I have baggies of crayon stumps sorted by color family on our art shelves. Doesn’t everyone? Or am I just obsessive in my craftiness?)
Then he aimed the lens, and in a few seconds the gratings of crayon started to curl, twist, flip and suddenly melt into tiny pools of color.
We took turns, so that one of us would aim the lens and the other could peer underneath to properly ooh and aah. It was really fun to watch the colors blend.
JediBoy was even inspired to put some gratings onto a rock and make a paperweight for PisecoDad’s office. And to burn holes in leaves too.
As you can see, BabyGirl (at 21 months) didn’t have any interest in the activity after we were done grating crayons. She enjoyed all the HOT sun on her own. We all had a nice afternoon outside.
I can’t wait to see what all the other Unplug Your Kids HOT projects are this week!
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