Question: As I am cleaning out my room after the last day of school yesterday, I am coming across tons of old broken crayons. Most I am able to save for the art area but so many are too small. I am looking for a way to recycle them into new ones. Does anyone know of a way to melt them down and perhaps make chuncky crayons, maybe even mixing some together to make them multi-colored. I am continuing my search but if anyone knows of a way to do this I would appreciate it. You know us teachers - we can never throw anything away!!!!! --Margo ...

What I do is take the broken pieces and put them into muffin tins that have been lined with aluminum foil liners (don't use the paper ones, the foil works better for this!). Put it into a low heat oven, and watch carefully. They will melt, but sometimes you might need to give it a quick stir. When they look right, take them out, let cool overnight, and you have chunky crayons! My classes love them! Good luck! --shawn

I was going to try shaving the crayons into an ice cube tray and try microwaving slowly but I will try your idea too. --Margo

Take broken crayons with the paper removed and put them into muffin tins. Put them into the oven on about 250 degrees and you have wonderful new crayons. You can mix different shades of blue for water, oranges, yellows and reds for sun and volcanoes. There are many different things you can do with the crayons. --B