Brittany McKnight, MS OTR/L

Welcome back to repurposed play where we take ordinary household items and repurpose them into meaningful developmental toys and play strategies. In this installment, we have compiled a list of fun activities that use one of the most common and widely trashed items in households with kids. Today, we will be repurposing… broken crayons!

This is a wonderful way to up-cycle broken crayons and engage your kids in a multi-step craft. Find this activity here .

Similar to the play-doh but adding a little more of a sensory tactile component to the fun! Find it here.

This is more of a hands-off and cost saving approach to teach our little ones how to identify and organize colors. Click here for this activity.

This one is my personal favorite on the list for our bigger kiddos. This activity teaches them fire safety awareness, fine motor skills, and temperature awareness, while creating really cool dot art with the crayon wax. You’ll definitely want adult supervision for this activity. Find it here.

It’s always good to remember that although the crayons are broken, they can still make beautiful art. Plus, from the perspective of an OT, using shorter crayons really addresses the pincer grasp needed to evolve into the desired handwriting grasp for the future.

We hope you enjoy these activities! As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s development, our therapists would love to help. Visit our website at hoggtherapy.com or give us a call at 859-353-3666.