Rock Cycle Using Crayon Shavings

A long time ago the children and I ended our rock unit by trying to use crayon shavings to illustrate the rock cycle.  I am not going to go into the gory details but suffice it to say that I don't recommend it as a profound educational idea.  The pinterest pages and cutsie little blogs all made it seem not only possible but easy.  Ha.  It was neither possible nor easy.

Fun, though.

The major problem is that heating up crayons in tinfoil is a tricky business.  We used boiling water and timed how long the little foil packets were in the water.  Unfortunately, no child managed to put the exact same amount of shavings in his or her packet as his or her peers so each packet melted  a little differently.

Here is a good blog post from someone who made it work: http://mommaowlslab.blogspot.com/2012/01/science-thursday-crayon-rocks.html

While we didn't get quite the perfect igneous vs. sedimentary vs. metamorphic crayon rocks, we sure did have a great time!  If it looks like fun but you aren't studying rocks, just call it an art project.  :)