Wednesday, June 3, 2009

summer boredom buster: swirly stones

Well the examples that I saw online looked swirly; ours did not.  But the kids still enjoyed this project.  Here's what you need:

  • smooth flat rocks
  • aluminum foil
  • oven mitt
  • newspapers
  • old crayons

Aluminum-foil line a cookie sheet first.

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Heat your oven to 250.

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Gather some brightly colored crayons and then peel back the papers a bit.

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Take several smooth flat rocks, clean them, and set them on the cookie sheet.

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In our experience the lighter ones work better.  These dark ones absorbed the color too much.  So try to use the lightest rocks you can find.

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Bake those puppies for 15 minutes.

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Using an oven mitt, remove the rocks from the stove and set them on a pad of newspapers.  *warning* the rocks will be very hot.  (Interestingly enough, when my children gathered these rocks from the great Arizona out-of-doors, they were probably already hot enough for this project!)

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Then take crayons and decorate by melting the crayons onto the rocks.

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Rather than simply color with them, if you just hold each crayon against the rock in one place and create a puddle of color, it seems to be more effective.

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Cameron's came out really well because it was the lightest rock, and because he has the most artistic talent in the bunch.

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But we all had fun with it.

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When they dry, they'll be smoother due to the waxy service.

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Let me know if you try this!

9 comments:

Margee' said...

Looks like they had fun with the rocks!
Is it summer vacation from school already down your way? There's still about week and half here for most of my grandkids and the 2 in NJ go until the 23rd.

Christine said...

That's cool. You're such a rocking mom!

April said...

That looks like a great project idea for the summer! I think I will do this with my kiddos! Thanks for the info!

Liz said...

Looked like a good time. Gotta love summer and no school.. Well at least when I was a kid I did.. Lol.. I love the shaving cream one we use to play with that to as a kid

Mark and Jessica said...

I need to do more of these kinds of projects with my kids - I spend too much time during the summer letting them vegg.

This looks like a fun project I'll have to try.

jinxi~ aka angi said...

wow, I definitely will try this. I have a question though.. how'd you keep them from touching the hot rocks with coloring?

Carrie said...

Did you have them put them on your back like at a spa afterwards? Because that would have totally "rocked!!" haha Get it? I kill myself. Seriously...

Kyle Farmer said...

That is very cool. Unfortunately my kids aren't old enough to realize they shouldn't grab the rocks. Repost this in a couple of years please. Maybe they'll be old enough then.

heather said...

what a fun mom you are.