Recipes for homemade crayons using recycled broken crayons

With Earth Day, and Earth Month, fast upon us, I'm looking at ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose .Making crafts with recycled materials from the recycle bin is an excellent way to teach Earth Day eco-friendly habits. Here's are activities to use up those leftover broken crayons. Repurpose them as new crayons with these simple science activities. 

Have students gather broken crayons and peel off outer paper. You'll be making new palm held crayons similar to the egg crayons. These are popular in special needs or preschool classrooms use to help children who aren't quite ready for the stick crayons. Palm or egg crayons help toddlers, preschool and special needs kids develop fine motor skills while still enjoying coloring activities. 

Once you have pile of peeled crayon pieces, spray old recycled muffin tins with cooking spray. Use mini muffin tins for preschool and older children and large ones for toddlers as mini shaped crayons might look edible to toddlers. Have students place assorted bits of broken crayons in each tin. Aim for a rainbow of colors in each cup. Help kids place muffin tins in oven and heat to 200. Heat till crayons on melted but still chunky. Swirl with toothpick while warm if you wish. Place crayon melts in refrigerator till hardened then turn out of pan and enjoy coloring.

Be sure to only use recycled muffin tins for crafts, and not cooking, once you've done this activity. This is a great way to repurpose old muffin tins and give them new life. Use these free printable rainbow coloring pages to make beautiful spring crafts. Print coloring pages and printables on scrap paper from recycle bin for green, Earth Day ecofriendly activities. 

St. Patrick's Day party lesson plans, crafts, activities to celebrate green

Here's a nifty unit of activities for St. Patrick's Day: lesson plans to celebrate all things green! I've tailored these lesson plans for classroom or homeschool, and ages toddler and preschool through grade 3. I've included St. Patrick's Day party activities, green themed food and snacks, games, crafts and printables. There are many earth science extensions for Earth Day too. 

Green themed snacks and food for St. Patrick's Day party: 

Make a green fruit and vegetable tasting tray. For hands-on biology science activities, explore plant parts of green veggies and fruits. Make a chart to show what plant part each comes from. Draw a large tree showing roots below the ground. The use these free printable coloring pages for fruits and vegetables to color, cut and paste pictures on the tree. 

Roots: sprouts, scallions (tops), fennel bulb

Stalk (trunk) celery, green onions, dill weed, asparagus

Leaves: lettuce, brussels sprouts
ts, kale, spring mix, arugula, spinach, cilantro, mint, watercress, 

Seeds: green beans, peas, edamame, 

Flower: Broccoli, broccoflower: flower 

Fruit: cucumber, kiwi, green grapes, green beans, zucchini, chayote squash (also called mirliton in southern states), green apples, pears, acorn squash

Students will enjoy making green lime yogurt pops by freezing yogurt in popsicle makers. Or freeze limeade or pistachio pudding. 

St. Patrick's party games: 

Play Red light/Green Light (basically stop and go). Extend with safety lesson plans. Discuss that green represents "safe" or "go" in online, cyber and traffic safety. Make traffic safety road signs to test children. Use these free printable traffic signals and road sign coloring pages. 

St. Patrick's Day green themed crafts

Discuss earth friendly ways to keep the earth green. Encourage kids to think reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose. Challenge them to make "green machines" that are both eco-friendly and green in color, from the recycle bin. 

Toddlers and preschool students will like to color these free printable spring coloring pages. Here are free printable flower coloring pages too. Be sure to print on scrap paper from the recycle bin. Use low ink settings for the most eco-friendly printing. Assemble into a poster to display. 

Have children make collages from recycled magazines of pictures of things that are green. For really earth friendly green crafts, use materials from the recycle bin. Toddler and preschool children will love finding green items in magazines. 

Plant herb seeds in recycled jar or plastic dish (holes poked in the bottom for drainage) from recycle bin. 

Earth Day green outdoor activities

Go on a nature hunt and look for spring signs of new life: nests, buds on trees, green plant shoots, flowers beginning to sprout, grass growing, baby leaves on trees. Pay special attention to things that are green. Kids should bring a nature journal where they can draw pictures of what they observe. 

Collect litter and trash for proper disposal. Be sure kids wear nitryl gloves and masks when collecting litter. Adults should collect any glass.