Color Your Heart Out

...with these tender lovin' treasures. 

Students from our reading and enrichment groups have been having so much fun getting ready for Valentine's Day. This week, we read books like Diane de-Groat's Roses are Pink Your Feet Really Stink and created these awesome "Color your Heart Out" &  "Color My World" Crayon Valentines. 

Shaped like hearts, these Valentines are not only fun to make, they're easy, too!  I'm not sure who enjoyed making them more...me or the students?  In fact, I liked this so much, I made them again at home with my son.  Preston loved them, too!

I first saw this idea in a magazine years ago and have revisited it from time to time.  It never gets old! 

Steps:

1. Made with melted Crayola Crayons, we started our project by gathering together lots of old crayons.

2. Next, we peeled off all the paper.  By the time I did this with my last student, I decided it might be more motivating if we raced to see who could peel their paper the fastest.  This sped things up quite nicely!

3. Then, we broke the crayons into pieces and separated them into color families.  This also made a nice discussion on grouping and patterns.

4. Finally, we used a heart shaped silicon baking mold to melt our crayons in.  We placed them in a preheated oven at 250 degrees and baked them for 20 minutes.  We let them cool for about 25 minutes and then gently removed them from the mold.

We packaged our crayons in pink tinted bags with some other treats, but there are all kinds of creative ways to package these Tender Lovin' Treasures.

Here is a link to a Martha Stewart video where she packages Crazy Crayons.



Also, there are zillions of ideas on Pinterest.  Check out and be sure to follow our Valentine Boards.  Lori's totally cool Be MY Valentine Pinterest Board!

Another resource for terrific Valentine Ideas and photos is: The Nerd's Wife.

Crayons made by one of our awesome students, Scott B.

~Step into the shoes of your inner child and dance with the Moon! 

                                                                                                       Happy Valentine's Day!
                                                                                                         XOXO Lori & Ted

Mr. Arachnid's Library:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/roses-are-pink-your-feet-really-stink-diane-de-groat/1101116157?ean=9780688152208