I am so thrilled with myself because I have figured out how to make homemade Wikki Stix. I made several dozen of them this afternoon and have a few basic ideas on how to use them, but I'm looking for more. Here are a few of my ideas; Make letter cards and have kids use the waxy sticks to form letters. Do the same for shapes cards, Find several simple dot to dot patterns using old coloring books and have the kids do the dot-to- dots with their waxy sticks. I am planning on using this for a center. Any other ideas? Thanks!
Wikki Sticks Aren't wikki sticks awesome? They are so much fun for the kids to manipulate and MUCH easier to clean up! I use wikki sticks in almost every subject! In reading, we use them to circle or underline words of the vowel sound/pattern that we're studying that week. We also use them when learning about punctuation and parts of a sentence. In Math, the kids form numbers and create additon/subtraction problems. In SOCIAL STUDIES, I laminated a map of the united states. The students manipulated the wikki sticks to form the Mississippi River, Rio Grande, Applachain Mountains, etc. Wikki sticks are also great for teaching cursive! Hope this helps!
Wikki Stix are strands of yarn that are coated with wax. They come in cool colors but are pretty expensive so I learned how to make my own. Thanks for the ideas Just Me. I'll keep those in mind.
If you prepare in advance it would be best. I found out the hard way and made a mess in my kitchen. You need; waxed paper (several sheets) yarn or string pre-cut to the size you want (I figured about six inches long) a pair of long tweezers to fish out the yarn strands and a wooden or metal spoon. I used thick 100% cotton yarn from Hobby Lobby. It was a three-ply yarn, so I pulled them apart. You need very soft and sticky wax, so I used (believe it or not) a toilet bowl sealant ring. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowes in the toilet section. You also need a very small amount of a harder wax like parafin. I went to Michael's but didn't find the parafin wax (I think its made by Gulf?) so I bought the cheapest basic candle wax I could find (actually it was bottle sealant wax, which is pretty much the same as the parafin wax usedfor canning). I did a lot of playing around and found that it worked best to use the whole wax ring with just a little bit of parafin (maybe 1/8th to 1/4th cup melted). Inside the wax ring is a filament type of substance, similar to steel wool, I would just dump that in and fish it out once all the wax was melted off. Anyway, melt the small chunk of parafin and then add the toilet sealant wax ring. Its messy, though. Wax has a low flash point so keep the temp very low. Once your waxes are melted start dipping your yarn strands. Let soak a moment until saturated and fish out with the tweezers. Let wax drip off the end until not dripping anymore and then transfer to the waxed paper to cool. Once cooled down, the strand should be sticky to the touch but not as sticky as the toilet seal wax. The wax shouldn't harden to the point where it cracks. It should be soft and pliable and sticky when cooled. I only used three colors of yarn, red, blue and white because that's what I had on hand. You could easily use other colors and types of yarn and even color the wax by adding food coloring. After I got cleaned up I thought about trying shoelace tipped stringing yarn that you get from Discount School Supply (which is polyester, I think) and even the bright neon floss and wondered how those would work. The waxes cost about ten dollars but you could easily split the costs with a co-worker and make more than enough for both of you. I had about half a cup of wax left over and probably ended up with 50 strands of waxy sticks. I could have done a lot more. Oh, and as I said, this is a messy process, I found that Orange Glow citrus cleaner (wood cleaner) worked pretty well in cleaning up the wax that dripped on the counter and stove. Let me know if I can help with any questions if you need.
http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/detail.asp?itemno=148800 If they are at Wal-Mart, they would be in the crafts section.
Thanks Clarnet73...I can check Hobby Lobby... I have a son your age! I always notice the birth dates!
If you can't find them at your local stores, you can order them online from The Learning Palace. They are a wonderful, versatile tool and kids love them!
