Did you know that one way you can help the earth become a cleaner place is by reusing your old things? There are lots of ways to reuse materials. For example, you can give your old things to someone else who needs them more than you. Another way you can reuse items is to think of a completely new way to use them.

We found a fun way to reuse old crayons! When your crayons get short and it becomes difficult to color with them, instead of just throwing them away, why not make rainbow crayons? We found this activity on the eco-friendly blog Daily Danny.

Step 1: Place all your old, unwrapped crayons into a baking pan. Ask a parent to put the baking pan in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the crayons should look like this:

Step 2: Once the sheet of crayons is cooled off, but still lightly warm, it can be removed from the baking pan.

Step 3: While the crayon sheet is still warm, taking a cookie cutter and start making shapes! Then remove the shapes, let them cool, and you will be ready to color with your new recycled rainbow crayons! How cool is that? Not only will you have new crayons, but you will have made the environment a cleaner place!

Can you think of other ways to reuse old items at home? Send us your ideas- the possibilites are endless! To learn more about reusing old materials visit the Meet the Greens site on pbskids.org.