FALL Art & Nature Activity paper making Materials Time

• scrap paper (tissue paper, Soaking the Paper: Ideally 24 magazines, newspaper, hours (but can be done over 3-4 hours. printer paper, receipts) In a pinch, boiling water will help • rags/towels/sponges speed up the soaking) • mesh frame that will Paper Making: Approximately 1 fit into your tub (a hour window screen will (not including drying time) work, or an old frame with mesh stretched and fastened over it) Objective • bucket • plastic tub Making paper is creative and fun. It appeals to children’s • water tactile senses, and they are left with something special they can use. Touching goopy pulp directly strengthens a • a blender hands-on understanding of the raw materials that make • rolling pin paper... something we use everyday. This experience • wax or parchment paper offers an opportunity to reflect on how we use paper, • food colouring (optional) scrap, and on our own recycling habits. • dried leaves/petals/seeds/objects Discuss what we might do to minimize our use of paper from nature/sparkles, or any other (recycling, using the backs of sheets, not using more than needed, etc.). Where does paper come from? What creative material bits for pressing in trees do we have in our local Acadian forests? What that will add texture (optional) products do trees provide us with, and how can they be harvested sustainably?

Knowlesville Art & Nature Activity : Paper Making / 1 of 3 Background Facts about Paper and

The common paper we find in stores is produced Paper Waste industrially. The pulp and paper industry currently makes up a large part of the Canadian economy. Pulp mills use • As we speak, more than 199 tonnes of something called “pulpwood”, which comes from paper has already been produced. softwood trees (like spruce, pine, fir, hemlock), and also • 10 liters of water is needed to make some hardwood trees (like aspen and birch). At the pulp one piece of A4 paper. mill, pulp is mixed from a combination of sawmill • To print a Sunday edition of the New residue, wood chips and logs, and recycled paper. York Times newspaper requires 75,000 trees! It's important to consider where the items we use every • Recycling 1 tonne of paper saves day come from. Trees are the source of many valuable around 682.5 gallons of oil, 26,500 products (fruit, nuts, sap, syrup, building material etc.). liters of water and 17 trees. Forests provide us with life giving oxygen, fuel, and of • Packaging makes up 1/3 or more of course, paper products. We must remember that paper our trash. use is not just confined to printing paper- other things • With all the paper we waste each year, such as packaging make up the majority of our paper we can build a 12 foot high wall of needs. Our paper consumption is one of the main causes paper from New York to California! of deforestation. 42% of the world's wood is harvested • Every tree produces enough oxygen for paper. It may be hard to believe, but each one of us for 3 people to breathe. uses about 465 trees over a lifetime to meet our paper • The average North American uses 700 needs. Our forests need to be protected and respected. lbs. of paper a year. This equals approximately 465 trees per person, Beyond deforestation, the paper production process is just for paper! very energy intensive; taking twice the energy to • When a newspaper is recycled, it takes produce paper than it does to produce plastic bags. Pulp only seven days from to become a and paper is the 3rd largest industrial polluter of air, brand new newspaper. water, and soil. Large scale paper production involves toxic materials. Furthermore, when paper rots in landfills , it gives off methane gas (a potent greenhouse gas).

Knowlesville Art & Nature Activity : Paper Making / 2 of 3 Steps Poem Cover your working area with newspaper, and have some rags handy. This will get messy. If it's nice outside, this is a great activity to do outdoors. Trees

The children can tear the paper they've gathered into tiny Trees are the kindest things I know, strips (about 1 or 2 inches wide). Soak the paper strips in a They do no harm, they simply grow bucket of water for at least a few hours, or, preferably, And spread a shade for sleepy cows, overnight. This will soften the paper and ready it for the pulp stage. And gather birds among their bows. They give us fruit in leaves above, Next, take the soaked paper and use a blender to create pulp And pulp to make our paper of, (here you can ad food colouring if you like). Do this by And leaves to toss on Halloween putting a few cups of water into the blender before adding And in the Spring new buds of green. the soaked paper, to help the machine run smoothly. Run the They are first when day's begun blender for short (15 sec) bursts, and continue until you've To touch the beams of morning sun, achieved a texture you're happy with. Add water if the mix is too thick. They are the last to hold the light When evening changes into night. Put the blended pulp into the tub, and ad water if you think And when a moon floats on the sky it's needed. The thicker the pulp, the chunkier the paper. Now They hum a drowsy lullaby children can take turns using the mesh screen to sift down Of sleepy children long ago... into the tub and gather their pulp. This is a great time for kids Trees are the kindest things I know. to roll up sleeves and use their hands to feel the squishy, mushy texture of their mixtures, and, if necessary, help the pulp distribute over the mesh. There should be a relatively - Harry Behn thick, uniform layer of pulp on the screen (it doesn't need to cover the entire screen- based on quantity, each child may just make a small patch of paper). Pull the screen up and Sources allow the excess water to drip out. • www.motherearthnews.com Now is the time to inlay any bits or pieces that children wish • paperslurry.com to add in for effect. Make sure the pieces are pressed in deeply • tinkerlab.com/how-to-make-paper/ enough that they will stay in the paper. • www.mommy-labs.com • theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper- Next place the screen on a thick rag and use another cloth to Waste-Facts absorb water from the top. Children can help with this, • gogreencyclopedia.blogspot.ca pressing down on their paper with the cloth. • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_%28paper %29 Use a sheet of parchment paper to transfer over the paper: • www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/arborday/ place the parchment on top and flip over the screen. Slowly trees_poem.htm and carefully pull off the screen and set the paper (on its piece of parchment, or transfer it onto a cloth) in a place where it can dry.

Knowlesville Art & Nature Activity : Paper Making / 3 of 3