Melted Crayon Art

The children participated in a very interesting art activity that combined their interests in drawing with their recent observations of things melting. Mrs. Bombardier set up a griddle that was covered in foil and turned on the 'warm' setting. 

The children helped us peel some festive colours of crayons.

With adult supervision, the children were invited to draw on a piece of paper that was placed on the warm surface...as they coloured they noticed the crayons begin to melt!

The children observed that the slower they moved the crayon on the hot surface, the faster it melted.

And the more they coloured, the more wax was left on their paper, creating beautiful textures and the blending of new colours on the surface.

The finished product was a masterpiece of colours, lines, and textures!  As the art cooled and the wax hardened, the children could feel their artwork as well as see it!  Beautiful!

Crayon Melting

We caught the crayon melting fever that's been spreading on early years blogs from around the world! What a great way to integrate science and art together!

We started with a line of neutral crayons hot glued onto a piece of heavy cardboard. Placing this cardboard on the art easel provided a stable place for the cardboard to sit, and was low enough for the children to reach without help.

We had a hairdryer hanging next to the easel that the children could access. We showed them how to turn the hairdryer on and off and how to have it on a low or high setting.



The children realized that when they aimed the hot air from the dryer at the crayons, the heat melted the crayons. Drawing on past experience melting ice, the children came to the conclusion that the crayons were a solid that turned to a liquid when heat was applied.

As the wax melted, the colours mixed together and created beautiful designs. When the heat was not applied, the wax hardened and drip marks were visible on the cardboard.

This is a very messy activity as the wax blows with the hair dryer. The children realized that they could direct the wax if they moved the dryer in a specific way.

 The children also made some wonderful connections between what they saw in the artwork and their past experiences. Many children thought the crayon art looked like fireworks or a sunset.

We tried it the next day with different colours!