Sunday, October 25, 2009

Color me spooky.

School treats for Halloween are usually pretty easy to decide on. Some sort of cookie or cupcake decked out for Halloween is always a hit.

This year was a smidge more difficult because one of the kids in Pi's class has severe food allergies. This little girl has to have all of her food specially made, so I didn't want to send in a sweet and have her feel left out.

Looking at the large pile of broken and worn down crayons that Pi has gave me an idea. There were so many, that the container they were kept in barely closed anymore. I figured we could recycle them while making a dent in the crayon overload.

We started by peeling the wrappers, breaking the larger pieces into tiny pieces, and separating them by color families.

Then we filled up a Halloween cookie mold with them. They were baked at 220 degrees for 10 minutes until fully melted.

When they were done, I let them cool for 5 minutes on the counter and then 5 minutes in the freezer. After the freezer they popped right out.


In no time, we had a stack of super neat crayons and a much more manageable crayon container.

This candy corn and Frankenstein are my two favorites.



They were wrapped up in Halloween lollipop bags and are all ready to go. If I have some extra time this week, I might make little tags to add to the bags.



These favors cost us under $2 (for the bags), just an afternoon worth of time, and no one has to worry about food allergies.
Do you guys send Halloween favors for school? What grade is too old for favors anymore? I'm not sure Pi will let me send anything next year.

11 comments:

Kristina P. said...

You are such a fun mom! What a great idea.

Dragonflymom said...

oh wow......those came out really cute, and what an imagination!! I never would have thought of that, but thanks to you, I will remember.

Bezzie said...

those are very cool! I just hope no one tries to eat them!

No. I don't send favors. Why? b/c at Chunky's school everything has to be inspected by the school nurse 8 days before the party and it's not worth the hassle.

Andrea Moberly said...

what a cute idea! I've seen these before, but never shaped like that :) You're so crafty, Christina!

Snap said...

Christine, What a great idea! I want one! :D :D :D

T. Joi said...

I love them...they would be perfect for Z's preschool class but I don't have a halloween pan. :( I will bake a cake and decorate it. As for the age thing...J just turned 11 and he has no desire for me to do anything for his class. "It's embrassing". So I guess 5th grade...

Laura said...

I have to second Dragonfly mom - Oh wow! That is a totally awesome idea! My son lately is obsessed with crayons, and hates drawing with broken crayons, so I may just have to steal your idea to recycle them!

My kids (1st and 6th grade) still take treats to school for the holidays. My son's 1st grade teacher has each child bringing in treats for a different holiday - my son got Halloween.

My daughter's school (she's at an alternative Catholic school for learning disabled kids now) is doing a Friendship Day event on the 30th, instead of a Halloween celebration, and the kids don't have to bring anything in, but she wouldn't be embarrassed bringing in some kind of treats, as a 6th grader.

kado! said...

AWESOME idea! I am SOOO doing that! I was just cleaning out their stuff and there are SO many crayons!

we are not allowed to send any food to my youngest school...so these would be perfect!

Anonymous said...

Love this! I saw this idea before and saved the webpage. They used a plain muffin pan. Using the Halloween pan is a great idea! Perfect for gifts. I'll have to keep that in mind for other Holidays as well.

Dk's Wife said...

Absolutely awesome! :)

Andrea Moberly said...

I finally got around to making some of these :) My 5-yr old and I did it together as a gift for his younger sister. I used Christmas shapes - so fun!