Core Skills Analysis
Art and Design
At her home education group, Jasmine chose the colour of wax for her candle and added smaller pieces of differently coloured wax as decorations. She explored how colour choices and placement changed the candle’s appearance, creating a design from the materials available. Rolling the wax helped her turn a flat piece into a three-dimensional object. This gave Jasmine practice making artistic decisions and shaping materials to express an idea.
Math and Early Engineering
Jasmine placed the wick along the edge of the wax and rolled the wax around it to form the candle shape. She learned through hands-on experience how positioning and rolling could bring separate parts together into one object. Adding small offcuts also involved noticing how pieces could be placed on the candle’s surface. The activity supported early problem-solving and understanding of how materials can be shaped and assembled.
Science and Materials
Jasmine handled wax in different sizes and colours, using a larger piece for the candle and smaller offcuts for decoration. She explored how the wax could be rolled and shaped by hand, and how the wick could be incorporated into the candle. These observations offered an age-appropriate introduction to materials and their physical properties through direct making. She also encountered the relationship between a candle’s wax body and its wick.
Social Learning
Jasmine took part in a candle-making activity with a home education group. She made individual choices about the wax colour and decoration while completing the shared group activity. This provided an opportunity to participate in a learning experience alongside others and to take ownership of her own creation. Her finished candle reflected the choices she made during the process.
Tips
Tips After making the candle, invite Jasmine to draw its design and tell you which colours and shapes she chose. Offer wax or play dough in different colours so she can make another rolled design and compare how changing the placement of pieces changes its appearance. Explore the candle’s parts together by identifying the wax and wick, then look at pictures of candles with different shapes and decorations. If lighting a candle, have an adult handle the flame and supervise closely while Jasmine observes from a safe distance.
Book Recommendations
- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt: A playful picture book that encourages conversations about colour, preferences, and creative choices.
- Mix It Up! by Hervé Tullet: An interactive exploration of colour that invites young readers to notice and imagine colour changes.
- What Is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld: A child-friendly introduction to materials and states of matter, connecting naturally to hands-on exploration of wax.
Try This Next
- Design-and-draw sheet: sketch the candle and colour its wax, wick, and decorations.
- Colour-pattern challenge: arrange paper or play-dough pieces into two different candle designs.
- Sequencing cards: draw and put in order choosing the wax, placing the wick, rolling, and decorating.
- Materials chat: ask, “What parts did you use to make your candle?” and “How did you shape the wax?”