Holiday Gifts - Student Edition

Throughout the month of December, my students have been studying gingerbread characters through a variety of books and their 5 senses.  I wanted to keep the gingerbread theme alive with their holiday gifts as well.  Enter...gingerbread crayons!
I found this silicon mold on sale as JoAnn's, plus I was able to use my teacher discount.  Let me just tell you, silicon molds are incredible for projects like this!  Plus, it was time to replace the crayons in my kiddos' table caddies, so I used the old crayons for this project.

I soaked the crayons (only Crayola, other brands don't melt right) in warm water for about an hour.  Most of the wrappers will fall right off.  Some of the wrappers need a twist.

Once you are ready to melt the crayons down, preheat your oven to 250 degrees.
Make sure to let the crayons dry before breaking them up.  I decided to mix up the colors.  When I did this project last year, I kept the same color/shades in each cell.

Be sure to fill up each cell!  Then, bake for 15 minutes.

As soon as you take them out of the oven, use a toothpick to mix up the pigment and the wax.  If you skip this step, the wax will float to the top and leave a strange layer.  Let them cool for at least 30 minutes.  You will know right away if they need more cooling time (they will break or crumble).

I am bundling up 2 crayons and a blank book for each of my kiddos.  I also created these tags, which I am ridiculously excited about.  The adorable frames are from Creative Clips.

I hope my students love them as much as I do. :)

Grab these tags by clicking on the picture.

Be sure to swing over to 3rd Grade Thoughts for other creative student gifts.

Happy Holidays!!

Don't forget to enter the GIVEaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway