Learning Activities for Kids

Melting Crayon Science Experiment

May 22, 2019 By Terri Thompson

Will crayons melt in the sun? If so, how long will it take?

We set out to find the answer to that question one day with a melting crayon science experiment.

It took a bit of patience and some problem solving. But, in the end, our science brains found an answer.

Will crayons melt in the sun? Find the answer to this question with a fun melting crayon science experiment. It's a perfect summer science project.

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Gather your supplies for your crayon melting experiment

Broken bits of crayons
Muffin tin or mold (silicon ones work best)
My Science Experiment page
A sunny day

If you don’t want to use a muffin tin, you can also use an ice cube tray or even several small disposable bathroom cups.

First, ask a few questions

We began our melting crayon science experiment by gathering supplies and asking a few questions.

The experiment itself was fun, but I wanted to challenge my girls to think like scientists during our experiment.

I created our My Science Experiment page to help us record our observations.

If you want to do this experiment too, please download and print your own science experiment page at this link.

We asked our question, do crayons melt in the sun?

We then made our predictions. The girls thought they would melt.

We also talked a bit about the things that would help the crayons melt. We determined that we needed to put our crayons out in the bright sunlight.

Set up your melting crayon science activity

We found all of our broken bits of crayons and put them in a silicon muffin tin. I found the silicon works the best, because it is easy to pop the crayons out of later.

Once we had our muffin cups filled, we took it all outside and found one of the sunniest spots in our yard.

We left the crayons bits outside for about two hours before we checked on them for the first time.

The main reason we waited that long was because while it was sunny, the temperature was only around 80 degrees F.

The crayons would melt, but slowly.

If you’re doing this on a hotter day, check it sooner! I’d recommend checking after the first 30 minutes and then every 30 minutes after.

We had some melting after 2 hours, then started checking every hour.

We recorded each of our observations on our science experiment recording sheet.

After several hours, we had partially melted crayons and we wanted to try to speed up the process.

We did some brainstorming and decided to put our crayons in our car which was sitting in the sun.

The hot car did the trick and our crayons finished melting. Make sure you have an adult and oven mitts to remove your muffin tin from the car. It’s as hot as an oven!

Our conclusion

We took our melted crayons inside and let them cool.

In the meantime, we wrote our conclusion. Yes, crayons did melt in the sun. The higher the temperature, the quicker they will melt.

After the crayons cooled and hardened, we popped them out of the muffin tray and tried them out. Our melting crayons science activity was a success!

Yield: 1 experiment

Melting Crayon Science Experiment

Can you melt crayons in the sun? Find out with this fun melting crayon science experiment that explores heat, the sun, and changing states of matter.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 6 hours

Total Time 6 hours 25 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost Under $5 (depending on the supplies you already have on hand)

Materials

Tools

My Science Experiment recording sheet

Instructions

Print out your recording sheet and make your prediction. Will crayons melt in the sun? How long do you think it will take?
Peel all the paper off your broken crayons. Break them into smaller pieces if needed to fit in your mini muffin pan.
Add 5 to 6 pieces of crayon into each cup. Mix the colors up or keep similar colors together.
Bring the crayons outside on a hot, sunny day. Make sure to set them someplace where they will get a lot of sunshine.
Check back after 30 minutes. Have they started to melt? Record your observations.
Keep checking every half hour. Record your observations each time.
Once your crayons have fully melted, record your time. How long did it take?
Bring your crayons to a cooler place to cool and harden again. Once you pop them out of the muffin cups, you'll have some fun new muffin tin crayons!

Notes

If you don't have a mini muffin tray, you could also use an ice cube tray or even small bathroom cups to hold your crayons.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

My favorite resource for science at home

Have you ever tried Green Kid Craft kids? We’ve got a yearly subscription and absolutely love it. Each month we get a box with everything we need for 3-4 themed STEM projects (plus a booklet with even more projects you can). Our last shipment was full of chemistry projects!

Green Kid Crafts is a great way to have science projects ready to go. You can get a subscription like we have or buy single boxes.

Get a subscription here.

Find other themed boxes here.

You can find even more fun projects for your 2nd grader by visiting the rest of the team. You’ll find math, reading, writing, and more.

Free Addition Facts Game from Live Over C’s

Number Ordering Activity from Sallie Borrink Learning

Interest Based Learning Project from Still Playing School

Free Back to School Noun Practice from Look! We’re Learning!

What I Love About School Art Project from Planet Smarty Pants

All About Me Flag Project from School Time Snippets

Getting to Know You Back to School Game from Preschool Powol Packets

Free All About Me Worksheets (LEGO Style) at 124 Homeschool 4 Me

Me Llamo – Simple Spanish Game from Rainy Day Mum

Setting Up a Homework Station at Crafty Kids at Home

Get more STEM projects delivered to your inbox

Wouldn’t it be so much fun to get STEAM family activities delivered to your inbox? I think so! That’s why I’ve created this fun series, STEAM Family Fun, to be delivered to your inbox. After going through all the letters in STEAM each week with a fun activity devoted to each, you’ll start receiving a fun STEAM activity once a month. (And I’ll also pop up in your inbox occasionally if I’ve got other fun things to share.)

Fill out the form below to start receiving STEAM Family Fun in your inbox.

Panda Reading Pointer Craft

May 20, 2019 By Terri Thompson

A reading pointer is a great tool for beginning readers. It helps them track the words on a page and trains the eyes to follow along.

You can grab any sort of reading pointer, but if you’ve got a kid that loves animals, they’re going to definitely love this fun panda reading pointer.

Use a craft stick to make this simple panda reading pointer for kids. It's a fun tool for beginning readers and animal lovers!

Also, CraftProjectIdeas.com sent me some of the supplies used on this project. All ideas are my own.

Supplies needed for your panda reading pointer

Jumbo craft stick
White craft paint
Black craft paint
Black felt
Glue
Small googly eyes

How to make your panda bear reading pointer

First, paint the entire front and back of your craft stick with white paint. Allow it to dry completely.

While your paint is drying, cut two small circles from your black felt to use as your ears.

Once your white paint is dry, add your details with the black craft paint. Add too ovals for the eyes and a small circles underneath for the nose. Draw your simple mouth details. Finally, add two half circles under your face for your paws. Let all your black paint dry.

If you need something to do while your waiting for paint to dry, read a great book about pandas! Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim is a fun choice. It’s a Chinese American retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

After your paint is dry, glue your felt ears to the back of the top of your craft stick.

Attach your googly eyes on your eye ovals. I found that using self-sticking googly eyes made this step really easy!

Once your glue is dry, your reading pointer is ready to use! Let this cute panda help your child practice reading.

Make this simple panda bear reading pointer for your beginning readers.

Yield: 1 Reading Pointer

Panda Reading Pointer

Make this simple panda reading pointer out of a craft stick. It's a great tool for your beginning reader.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost Under $5 (depending on the supplies you already have on hand)

Materials

Tools

Instructions

Paint your entire craft stick with the white paint. Let dry.
While your paint dries, cut two small circles out of your black felt for your panda's ears.
Once the paint is dry, add details with your black paint. Add two ovals for your eyes and a small circle for the nose. Add a simple mouth and two half circles for your paws. Let dry.
Once your black paint is dry. Glue your two ears to the back of the craft stick at the top.
Add your two small eyes to the black ovals.

Notes

If you don't have any black felt you can use craft foam or black card stock instead.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Use your panda bear reading pointer with one of these great books:

It would be so much fun to use your new reading pointer with a great book about pandas.

For nonfiction, try National Geographic Readers – Level 2: Pandas by Anne Schreiber.

Or, if you’re up to chapter books, try Magic Treehouse: A Perfect Time for Pandas by Mary Pope Osborne.

Here are some other books you may like:

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Easy Word Family Match Game

May 2, 2019 By Terri Thompson

Word families are one of the building blocks for learning to read.

If you have a good grasp on word families, you’ll be well on your way to decoding words. And, the more words you can decode, the better you can read.

Word families are that important.

This simple word family match game is easy to make and a fun way for your child to practice recognizing and reading word families.

Practice reading and rhyming with this simple word family match game for kids. It's easy to make and can be used for any set of word families.

Word Families, sometimes known as phonograms, are the one syllable endings of a group of words. For example, the -at family would contain the words hat, cat, chat, that, sat, etc.

This game supports any group of word families. Select the ones that your child is working on in class or any that you see your child struggling with. I do like this list to use for reference. You can find the most common word families and many examples of each at this link.

Supplies Needed

2 different colors of construction paper
Ruler
Scissors
Black marker

How to make your word family match game

Begin by cutting off enough extra paper from each sheet of construction paper to turn it into a large square. My squares were 9 inches by 9 inches. Divide each large square into 16 equal-sized smaller squares (2-1/4 inches each). You’ll have 32 total squares. (I know, that’s a lot!)

Next, choose your words. You will need eight different sets of word families, each set will have four words. Use two squares of one color and two squares of your second color for each set.

For example, in the above picture, I used the -en family: den, men, when, then.

Put words on each of your squares.

How to play this word family match game

Mix up all your word family and spread them out.

Challenge your child to create eight different four squares of words by sorting the squares into word families.

This words best as a single-player game. But, two kids can play together. Just have them take turns putting together their four squares.

When you’re done, you’ll have eight different larger squares for each word family. If you put them all together, you’ll have a larger word quilt.

Extend the fun with some more versions of this game

Practice reading the words out loud after you create a four square.

Can you name even more words for each word family? After your child makes a four square, challenge them to name two more words for each word family.

Choose one of the word family squares and see if you can find more examples in a favorite book.

How would you add to the fun?

If you liked this word family match game, you may also like one of these reading games:

Stacking Rhyming Words

AD Word Family Activity: Highlighter Words

Word Family Slam

Sight Word Tallies

LEGO Word Family Sorting at This Reading Mama

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

IN Word Family Game: Hide and Seek Words

April 24, 2019 By Terri Thompson

How many ways are there to practice word families?

I can’t even count them all. The possibilities for word family games are endless.

We’ve done some Highlighter Words and even made an AT Hat. This time, we’re going to play a fun IN word family game: Hide and Seek Words.

Hide words, find them, and read them with this fun IN Word Family Game: Hide and Seek Words. Post includes printable word cards.

Prep your IN word family game

Before you begin, you’ll need a set of words. I’ve prepared a batch of IN words family printable flashcards you can use. Click here to download and print.

There are 15 words that print on two pieces of paper. Print them out on regular paper or card stock for durability.

Cut apart all the cards.

It’s time to play hide and seek words!

You need at least two people to play this game.

You need one person to hide the words. (This is a great job for a parent!) And, you need at least one other person to find the words. You can have as many seekers as you would like.

Take all the IN words and hide them. You can play this game indoors or outdoors. Anything goes!

Play hide and seek words outside with your kids to help them learn word families.

Once all the words are hidden, it’s time to seek. The job of the seeker is to find a word, read the word, and say the word. Can you find them all?

This IN word family game can be played over and over until you’ve mastered all the words. It’s such a fun way to practice reading.

More fun variations of this IN word family game

Are you working on a different word family? You can just print out a different set of cards to use with this game. You can go here to find all my word family flashcards.

Try this game with sight words or spelling words instead of word families. Just write your your words on index cards to hide.

How would you play this game?

Learn reading with fun games!

In addition to this fun word family game, here are some other fun games to have on hand to practice reading at home with your child.

Do you want to do more activities with your family?

Flower Name Recognition Activity for Toddlers

April 9, 2019 By Trisha

Is your child interested in learning letters?

It’s always fun to start with the letters in their names. Our flower name recognition activity for toddlers is the perfect way to practice learning the letters in a name. Use the idea to work on learning the alphabet or matching uppercase and lowercase letters, too.

Help your child learn their name with this fun spring activity for toddlers - Flower Name Recognition Activity. It's so easy and so much fun!

Flower Name Recognition Activity for Toddlers

Supplies Needed for the Name Activity

Craft foam sheets
Permanent makers
Scissors
Large dry erase board
Spray bottle filled with water

How to Set Up the Flower Themed Name Game

Since this activity involves spraying water, it’s a good idea to take it outside. Or at least have some towels handy and your floor protected. The spray bottle adds in some bonus hand strengthening. See my alternative materials for other options.

Use a permanent marker to write your child’s name on a large dry erase board. (Permanent markers will erase from a dry erase board with rubbing alcohol. Or scribble over the permanent marker with a dry erase marker and then wipe clean.) I used the dry erase board side of our easel. This makes for an easy set up. A piece of tile board from the hardware store is also a good option for a large, inexpensive dry erase board.

Cut out flowers from the craft foam that will cover the letters on your dry erase board. I drew the flowers on the board as well. Use a permanent marker to write the letters on the foam flowers.

Place the foam flowers and the spray bottle next to the white board. Have your child spray each letter on the board with water. Talk about the letters. What do the letters spell?

Next, encourage him to match the letters in his name. Find the foam flower that matches the letters on the board. The water will allow the foam to stick to the board.

Talk about the letters as your child is matching them. Help her turn the flowers so that the letters are facing the correct way.

Alternative Materials to Use for the Flower Name Recognition Game

You could try this same activity in the bath tub. The foam will stick to the walls when wet. Use bath crayons to write your child’s name.

Instead of using a spray bottle, use a wet wash cloth to get the white board wet.

Instead of using foam, use magnetic sheets to create your flowers. (Small magnets shouldn’t be used around toddlers and children who like to put things in their mouths.) Build the flower name on a magnetic surface like a magnetic dry erase board, a metal drip pan, or a magnetic cookie sheet.

Create a sticky wall using contact paper. Tape the contact paper sticky side out to the wall (or table). Use paper or foam flowers to build your names.

More Flower Themed Name Recognition Activities to Try

Stir the Wonder used foam flowers and alphabet stickers to make spring flower names on the window.

Get kids moving with these 2 spring themed name recognition games from Toddler Approved. Go on a flower name hunt and play a water the flowers game.

Use the printable from Totschooling to make a name recognition flower garden.

More Name Recognition Activities for Toddlers

Make a Name Recognition Sensory Bin

Try these Farm Themed Name Recognition Activities

Play a Name Practice Water Game

Learning Activities for Kids

Gather your supplies for your crayon melting experiment

First, ask a few questions

Set up your melting crayon science activity

Our conclusion

Materials

Tools

Instructions

Notes

Recommended Products

You may also like one of these science experiments:

My favorite resource for science at home

You can find even more fun projects for your 2nd grader by visiting the rest of the team. You’ll find math, reading, writing, and more.

Get more STEM projects delivered to your inbox

Supplies needed for your panda reading pointer

How to make your panda bear reading pointer

Materials

Tools

Instructions

Notes

Recommended Products

You may also like one of these animal crafts

Use your panda bear reading pointer with one of these great books:

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

Supplies Needed

How to make your word family match game

How to play this word family match game

Extend the fun with some more versions of this game

If you liked this word family match game, you may also like one of these reading games:

More games to make reading fun

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

Prep your IN word family game

It’s time to play hide and seek words!

More fun variations of this IN word family game

You may also like one of these fun reading games:

Learn reading with fun games!

Do you want to do more activities with your family?

Flower Name Recognition Activity for Toddlers

Supplies Needed for the Name Activity

How to Set Up the Flower Themed Name Game

Alternative Materials to Use for the Flower Name Recognition Game

More Flower Themed Name Recognition Activities to Try

More Name Recognition Activities for Toddlers

Do you want to do more fun activities with your kids?

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