Hand Made Crayons

Rachel is learning about colors for science this year. I was searching for fun stuff to do with colors and I found this great project. So much fun! You peel the paper off crayons, and then break them up and stick them in silicone shape trays. Then melt in the oven at 275c for about 25 minutes.  When you remove the trays be really careful not to shake the trays so the colors will stay swirled, otherwise the colors will mix and turn brownish. 

We bought our trays at Ikea, in four different shapes. The best shape to use is the heart shape. They are the easiest to remove and they don't break. All the fish tales and star "arms" broke off while trying to remove them from the trays. Not so fun. 

Crayons peeled, broken and ready to be melted. 

Perfectly melted crayons. It takes a couple of hours to completely cool before you can "pop" them out of their mold

As you can see, none of the fish tails survived and a lot of the star arms broke off.. :o(

 I just love how the hearts turned out, so adorable. :o)

By the way, sorry about the for formatting on this post, I have been having a terrible time inserting pics with the "improved" blogger! :o)

Thanks for stopping by, 

Nicole Bailey

Preschool Work

So this year I am teaching Matthew too. :o) He's very enthusiastic and easy to teach. 

We are basically just working on the alphabet and counting right now.  We have already started working on letter sounds as well. Matthew should start reading by December, and working on addition also.   

Matthew working on counting to ten

We purchased Wiki Stix for practicing Matthew's letters. He just loves using them. Rachel uses them too. 

Another activity we do with the wiki stix cards is match up the letter card to the giant alphabet mat in the school room. Matthew is getting really good at this, and really enjoys getting out of his desk and moving around. :o)

Wiki Stix are basically waxed pieces of yarn. So the "stix" are bendable and slightly sticky. I just LOVE this product! I am on the look out for the number set too!

We also have a few different magnetic book sets. Matthew is working on the alphabet one here.  He is working on his letter recognition.  

Anyways, those are a few activities that Matthew has been up too lately.