Craft Stick Pencil, Crayon, and Colored Pencil Back-to-School Craft

In celebration of back-to-school season, today's craft has students make a craft stick pencil, colored pencil, or crayon and use it to write advice on how to be successful during the new school year. It's a fun way to encourage kids to start the year off on the right foot. Back in my teaching days, I had my students write letters of advice at the end of the year for the students who would be sitting in their desks the following year. It was always a delight to see what they wrote. Affiliate links below. 

 

Craft Stick Pencil, Crayon, and Colored Pencil

Materials: 

• 10" craft sticks
• scissors
• sandpaper
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• Folk Art Metallic Silver
• pencil
• Sharpie

Steps: 

Use the scissors to trim the one end of each craft stick to make a rounded point. There two things to note: 

1. Cutting craft sticks generates sharp wood pieces that can potentially go flying. Teachers should prep the sticks ahead of time rather than having students do this step in class. 
2. It is easiest to cut if you put the craft stick all the way in toward the fulcrum of the scissors.

You can cut the other end of the craft stick straight across if you wish. I did that for my colored pencil and crayon but left the pencil with a rounded end. Totally up to you. When you are done cutting, sand the craft sticks so there are no rough edges. 

Paint the craft sticks. I started by painting the wood part of the pencil and colored pencil, but in retrospect that seems like an unnecessary step since the craft stick is already wood. So I'd skip that. I used green for the body and tip of my colored pencil. For my crayon, I used orange for the ends, then mixed in a little bit of coral to lighten the paint to make the wrapper. For my pencil, I painted the eraser pink, the body yellow, and the tip dark grey, then added the silver paint. 

When the paint was dry, I used a pencil to subtly define the edges between colors. Then I drew parallel lines on the silver paint to mimic the texture of the ferrule. Finally, I used the Sharpie to add the tips for being successful in school. 

Maybe it's just me, but I think it would be fun (if impractical) to tape a real pencil to the back and use this for writing.  

I really enjoyed making this craft, even though my back-to-school days are behind me. I wish all of the students reading this a successful and enjoyable school year. Ask questions! Study for tests! And do your homework!