Homemade paper at Manning Montessori Preschool

Our students recently made some homemade paper. The process is so simple as you can see below. It is fun for children to see the steps taken to complete something. It also provides opportunity to talk about recycling and reusing things. When it was dry they drew on the paper and took it home. As an added bonus for Earth Day we added some native flower seeds to the pulp in step 3 and now they can plant the paper and enjoy the blooms with their families.

1. You take any scraps of paper that you have around and tear them into small pieces.
2. You soak them and then blend them in your blender with water into a pulp.
3. Then you take the pulp and put it in a bucket.
4. You then take a screen (we made ours with an old window screen that we lined with popsicle sticks so each child could do their own, but you can use a splatter guard at home)
5. Then you put another screen (or a second guard) on top and use a sponge to absorbe the exess water and squese back into the bucket.
6. Let the paper sit or put near your heater and wait till it dries.
7. Decorate as you like.
8. Give to someone.

Above you can see the art made by our student Colin.