Planet Earth Sun Catcher

How does your preschooler’s crayon collection look? Is it a little shabby with nubby, dull crayons floating around the box? I don’t know about your kids, but nothing is more uninspiring to my kiddos than crayons that don’t have a point. They refuse to color with them. It’s a problem. So the other day I pulled out the crayon sharpener (see: eyebrow pencil sharpener because we don’t really have a crayon sharpener), and we sharpened some crayons. That’s when I remembered a post we shared on Pre-K Pages a while back that the kids loved- Raindrop Sun Catchers. As luck would have it we were also having a rainy day while sharpening the crayons and I decided another sun catcher would be a fun project!

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Supplies:

• Crayons
• Pencil sharpener
• Wax Paper
• Iron
• Tape
• String or embroidery floss

I started by having the kids sharpen a few blue and green crayons into a plastic cup. Having the kids peel the paper from the crayons is great fine motor practice, too!

A little shavings go a loooonnnngggg way. The kids really didn’t need to sharpen this much, but they were really enjoying sharpening so I didn’t stop them. My friends say they use a heavy duty sharpener for schools, but I think in this case we didn’t have a problem!

Once we finished sharpening, I cut a piece of wax paper and dumped our shavings onto it. I folded the wax paper in half then ironed the top piece of wax paper to melt the shaving between the two sheets. This is an adult-only portion of the activity, but I let my kids sit at a relatively close distance to see what happens when we ironed the wax paper and crayons.

The kids really enjoyed watching the crayons melt! We talked about how heat caused the crayons to become liquid, just like ice melts and becomes liquid [water] in the heat of the sun. (Just s quick little science connection there for your kiddos 😉

We thought the end result was really beautiful and hung them in our windows to admire. The texture created by the melted crayon shavings made each piece really unique!

Have you made sun catchers before? I’d love to see how yours turn out! Share them with us on Instagram and don’t forget to pin this idea for later!

See how me made the entire solar system sun catcher here! Also, check out these amazing Paper plate planets from Craftulate!