Bringing some extra colour to the classroom

Having spent so many hours on Pinterest over the holidays searching for fun art activities, I couldn't help coming across lots of melted crayon art. There are so many different takes on it with so many beautiful outcomes so I thought it would make a lovely addition to the classroom. Many of the resources I used were purchased through the very kind collective end-of-year present from many mums in 3B (thank you very much again!)

I used:
- Roughly 3 packs of crayons
- Glue gun
- Canvas
- Hairdryer
- Acrylic paint and paintbrush
- Stencil

Step 1
Choose the colours you wish to use and glue-gun them to the canvas where you wish. I went for the standard rainbow colours but glued them in a bit of a zig-zag to make it a bit more interesting.

Step 2
Cover your work-space (and yourself!) to ensure minimal mess. Tilt the canvas so that the melted wax goes where you want and then just keep going until you're happy. I probably ended up hairdrying for about 30-40 minutes in total but it flew by. Some colours take longer than others to start melting (why is that?) but they all worked after just a few minutes. I slowly went along the whole row of colours, let the wax dry and then carried on to get a few different layers.

I just realised that I missed out a step. The very first thing that I did was paint on 'IDEAS' in black paint down my canvas using a stencil. I chose this word because obviously in a classroom it's important to have a space where people can not only have these brilliant ideas but also feel safe sharing them. Ideas can be colourful, sometimes they mix into one another and make something fantastic. Hopefully this message has been conveyed in the work below! It's currently resting on a table in the classroom next to one of my pupil's 'Art of the Week' but I'm trying to sort out a proper hook so it can hang above the door.

Thanks for reading!
DB.