Hot Rock-Fun Kid's activity

Take Rocks and Crayons and a little heat and you can create awesome melted hot rocks! Kids and adults totally love making these creations!

Okay–This is one our my family’s FAVORITE art activity right after this geometric art activity ! HOT ROCKS!

And guess what, it involves crayons and rocks! Most things you already have on hand! So it’s perfect for those boring days when you’ve got NOTHING planned!

Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: Every time I post these on Instagram or facebook, I get LOTS of comments about how this is not a kids craft.

First, the rocks are warm- not necessarily HOT. (warm rocks don’t have the same ring to it). Second. If you feel like your kids are to young and/or will burn their fingers, then you can just skip this! No one is forcing you to create this! We did this craft with my youngest being 6 and she did just fine. You can also wear some $1 gloves you can buy for winter to prevent any accidental touches!

Supplies to make hot rock craft

Flat smooth rocks
crayons (broken ones are perfect for this!)
Oven or heat source

Just a heads up about rocks! I live in Idaho and am just using rocks from my yard. But I wanted you to be aware!

How to make hot rock crayon art

I sent my kids outside with a bucket to gather up some rocks. Flat smooth rocks are ideal. We clean off any dirt and put them on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil and pop them in a 200 degree oven. (That is the lowest my oven goes)

If you don’t have an oven, someone recommended using a crock pot or a toaster oven.

I did try rocks that were left outside in the sun when it was 100 degrees outside and sadly they didn’t melt the crayons!

Then we gather all our old broken crayons and peel the paper off while they are heating up!

Grab a bowl of hot water and drop your crayons in. After a minute, the paper just comes right off!

After about 10 minutes, the rocks were nice and warm, and it was the perfect temperature to melt the wax on the crayons all over the rocks! The wax will drip down (and wax is messy) So we folded paper towels and put them underneath. I just grabbed one with a hot pad and place it in front of the kid when they were ready for it.

Remember: This is called HOT rocks. So they are warm and can be hot depending how long you leave them in the oven. It’s recommend to not touch them! Another benefit of the paper towel is that you can take the corner and move it around to get all sides and then can slide out it out of the way when you are finished.

It is so fun to watch the crayons melt down over the rock!

I know I say it’s a kid’s craft but I’m not going to, lie. I made just as many as my kids. And my “too cool for crafting” 13-year-old sat there the longest decorating rocks! It was a big hit!

We even made a heart of te fiti one for our Moana roundup!

They are just so fun and colorful! I took a ton of pictures! We made eyeballs and flowers and bugs and animal prints!

How do the hot rocks hold up outside?

One of the questions I get asked the most is if I seal the rocks and how they hold up! I do not seal them at all. Once they dry, we throw them back in with all the rocks in our driveway! It’s so fun to spot them as we walk by.

AND- they hold up really well! I know I live in Idaho were the summer highs are 90- but the wax does not melt off the rock. I was trying to use crayon shavings outside to see if the sun would melt them and it was 100 degrees and they did not melt. We even have snow- LOTS of snow- and the rocks still looks good! Some of the rocks have been out for 10 years and they are faded- but still intact!

But like I said, I’m in Idaho! I don’t know about hotter climates or humidity or the effects if the rocks are sitting in direct sunlight day in and day out.