As an Early Childhood/ kindergarten teacher I adored "yarn wax sticks". They have so many uses, are easy to manipulate, and are mess free. To buy them in large quanities can get expensive so I decided to try making my own. The process take about an hour and is a little messy so make sure you cover your work area.
Materials:
100% cotton yarn (single ply works best), bright colors
toilet bowl seal, clear (you need a soft wax)
paraffin wax or candle wax
pot
tweezers
cookie sheet
wax paper or foil
paper towels
Instructions:
Cut your yarn into 8 inch lengths. Cover cookie sheet with wax paper to make clean up easier. Put the wax toilet seal into your sauce pan and turn the heat on low. Once the seal melts, you will need to remove the metal insert. After you’ve removed the insert, add a chunk of the paraffin wax. The two types of wax will keep the wax from cracking on the yarn. Test a strand of yarn. Continue to add small amounts of paraffin until the strands stick to each other once dry but not leave a residue on the surface. I used 4 small chunks.
When the wax is ready, drop several strands of yarn into the wax, wait 30 - 45 seconds for them to absorb the wax, then lift them out with the tweezers. Lay them in a single layer on the lined cookie sheet to dry. They are ready to use.
I was able to make about 200 yarn sticks in less than hour for under $10.00. If you don't want to go to all the trouble you can purchase Wikki Stix
.Now that you have all these "sticks" the uses are endless.
Create pictures
Make sculptors
Form shapes
Create letters or numbers with them
Make venn diagram
"Write" spelling words
Circle/underline words, letters, punctuation, verbs... in books
Find locations on a map
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