Preschool Craft: Homemade Paper

Preschool Craft: Homemade Paper

8/12/2015

A few months ago our YWAM preschool class at Little Builders Preschool (a ministry of YWAM San Diego/Baja) was studying recycling. We learned all kinds of really cool things about reusing, reducing and recycling. We even sang and danced along to the Jack Johnson song, 3 Rs.

One of the really fun things that we did was make paper. We had never done it before but watched a couple videos on how paper is made and how construction paper is made from recycled materials. We decided to jump in, experiment and see how it would go!

Here's what worked for us:

Materials:

Base Color Paper (we recycled some packing paper that came in a recently delivered package)
A Piece of Color Construction Paper (we reused/recycled some scraps from a previous craft project)
Blender
Water
Screen (we used some sand sifters)
Felt
Paint T-shirts (could substitute towels but this is what we had)

Instructions:

Start by tearing up the paper. We decided to use the majority of the base color and then added just a little bit of the construction paper. This was a great way to practice our fine motor skills. We had fun getting our aggression out as well by ripping the paper to shreds!

Preschool Craft: Homemade Paper | We experimenting with making our own paper one day during our preschool craft time while we were learning all about recycling. Head over to www.sherilbrasher.info & click on School Recourses for more fun preschool activities.

We had each child put their paper into a small bowl to keep it contained & to help when it was their turn to dump the contents into the blender.

Each child then got a turn to dump their shreds of paper into the blender. We did this one at a time since we only had one blender available to use. We then added just enough water to cover the paper. We then added the lid* and watched it mix together to become pulp.

* We tried this a few different ways. The best way that we found to get some really cool looking paper with flecks of color was to blend the base color first and then add the colored paper and pulse just a a few times. This way the colored paper was bigger and could be seen better.

We then poured our the pulp into our strainers (we used our upside down so that we could push the water out easier). We made sure that the strainers were inside of a larger bowl so we wouldn't get water everywhere when we dumped it out. We then pushed the water out by putting our hands flat on top of the pulp and pushing.

The kids all said that it felt very squishy and slimy. After the kids each got a turn I helped push a little bit more water out before moving on to the next step.

We added a piece of felt to the top & pushed more water out. We wanted to make sure that we got as much water out as possible before moving it. This would ensure that the new piece of paper kept it's shape.

We transferred it to another piece of felt, sandwiching the new paper between 2 pieces of felt. This allowed us to get any additional moisture that may have lingered on the side that was facing the strainer.

To get even more water out, we then sandwiched the 2 pieces of felt between 2 of our paint shirts. You could use towels but we don't really have towels lying around so we used our cotton t-shirts instead. We had the kids step on them to squeeze the last little bit of moisture out that we could. To make sure the floor didn't get wet we had this whole t-shirt/felt/new paper sandwich on top of a plastic container lid.

The very last step was the hardest, waiting! We had to wait for 24 hours to let our new paper dry completely. One movement before it was dry resulting in tearing and that was not good. So we waited. And we waited. And we waited. The next day when we came back, the paper was done & looked really cool. It had lightened up in color as it dried and each sheet was unique, just like the child that made it.

We decided to cut our paper into hearts and use them as special cards for our parents but the uses are endless. The kids colored on them and it was a very special handmade treat for the parents.

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Author

I am on an amazing adventure traveling the world with Jesus. After 7 years of teaching preschool in Alabama, God called me to the mission field in Mexico full time. I led short-term missions trips for 6 years and the Lord opened the door for me to mix both of my passions, missions and teaching. I am now the director of Little Builders Preschool and we will soon be opening a full International K-12 school. The current students are missionary kids but will be open to the local community in the future.

Join me on my adventure and learn what I learn.

As a full-time missionary, I do not receive a traditional pay check. I rely on the generous support of friends, family & people like you. As any teacher does, much of what we use in our school is purchased by me out of my own personal funds. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our ministry and help our students reach their potential in education.