Global Warming

OK, this is not what is generally meant by "global warming" but is is an Earth picture that is warmed to create. I have seen wax paper/crayon shaving sun-catchers before and thought it would be perfect to make an Earth. They turned out better than I expected and I should note, messier than I expected too.

Supplies needed -

• Large sheet of wax paper folded in half
• A few blue and green crayons, different shades add a bit of interesting dimension
• a place to put the shavings
• Not a vegetable peeler, but a pencil sharpener (what was I thinking!! luckily nobody was hurt with the peelers) we switched to sharpeners early on and everyone could do it.
• Goo Gone a handy cleaner for removing wax and crayon - it cleaned up my pans and molds from the last crayon melt nicely.

If I was going to do this again, I would sharpen some crayons of regular size and not mess with the nubs, save those for this.

Use a bowl to trace, or draw a circle on your wax paper, the size you want your earth, then set aside.

Sharpen your crayons so you have a little pile of shavings, you really don't need very many. Prepare your ironing board - cover it with scrap paper or newspaper to protect it, I would also recommend aprons because hot wax is very runny.

Sprinkle shavings inside the traced circle, if you want a geographically correct earth, you could put a print out/picture under the wax to follow. My boys enjoyed making their own islands and putting Mexico next to Africa and India.

Fold the sheet of wax paper over top the shavings, or add another piece on top. Cover this with another sheet of newspaper to protect your iron.

You may want to do this step yourself, rather than let your kids, but since I'm crazy and my ironing board locks at a lower height... gently iron, it melts quickly and be careful, don't push down on the iron or the wax will ooze out the sides.

While the wax cools, turn off your iron now so you don't forget. Remove all the scrap paper and admire your work.

We then cut the paper into circles, I'll post a picture of them in the window tomorrow catching some sunshine. I like how the paper bubbling resembles clouds.

Happy Earth Day!