Melting into Spring

Spring is a time when students and even teachers are antsy for summer to begin and to enjoy the outdoors and nicer weather. The peer lesson that was taught today made it even harder to be indoors, but it was a cute. We made our own bugs out of wax paper, melted crayons, construction paper and permanent markers. This was the procedure:

1. Have students select a folded piece of wax paper and a bag of crayons. Make sure the wrappers are off of the crayons before they are handed out. 
2. Student will be shaving their selected crayons will a file. Proper technique will need to be taught (how to effectively use the file and how to properly hold it). 
3. Students need to create a tremendous amount of shavings using the crayon colors they selected. 
4. Once there are enough shavings, students carefully carry the wax paper over to the teachers who will iron (melt) the crayon into a unique pattern. 
5. Once the wax paper is cooled off, students take a bug template and trace and cut out the pattern. 
6. The pattern then needs to be glued to a piece of construction paper and then re-cut it out, but this time with a 1 inch border. 
7. Finally, students design the bug's face and body features using their choice of permanent marker (dark colors work best to show up).

**Extension Activity**

This project could fit into numerous subjects in a teacher's curriculum. This would go nicely to supplement characters of a guided reading story being used in a particular lesson. Students could make a melted crayon design of a character from the story or book. This would let students be creative in a way where they could make the characters into what they envision them looking like or how they think they should look.