This melted bead craft worked so well with ages 5 yrs and up! In fact, I liked making these myself for my garden! Only drawback is the melted plastic does give off a plastic odor in the house so do it on a day where you can open a window.
I used different shaped metal cookie cutters with the kids. I had cars, planes, and animals as well as hearts, flowers and circles. You can also use a muffin tin and just put the beads in there, too. The, cookies cutters that worked best were the ones without many sharp corners as it was hard for the kids to get the beads into those little places. Putting smaller beads into the corners might have worked.
Place the cookie cutters on top of a metal pie plate, cookie sheet, or cake pan. Fill with the plastic beads making sure that all the beads are touching each other, but only one layer. It doesn’t matter if the beads are sideways or flat. They will still melt the same.
Place the tray in the 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Watch to see that they are all melted before taking out. Let cool and they will pop out quite easily. To hang them, drill a small hole in the top and thread with fishing line.
All the kids loved how they turned out and wanted to make more than one!
Check out www.craftster.org as this inspired me to try it.