Recycled Art: Paper

This week in recycled art, we learned about recycling paper and how to make our own recycled paper!

Paper can be recycled into many things; we must keep it from taking up space in our landfills and recycle it! Over 40% of all waste in the landfill is paper! We could significantly extend the life of our landfills if we consciously made an effort to recycle more paper.

Not only does it free up space in the landfill, but it is fun to create recycled paper! 

The students collected paper all week at home and brought it into class to turn into new paper. This simple activity creates social awareness and responsible decision-making in students by showing them how much paper they use in a week and discussing responsible ways to recycle it. These simple social-emotional learning lessons are something I seek to incorporate into the art lessons I teach.

However, don’t think I have it all together. As I was demoing how to make paper, I may have made yellow paper pulp with chunks that looked like vomit and made half the class gag. Ha! Those 1-3 graders don’t miss a thing! After that demo, NO ONE wanted to make their paper yellow and chose red and blue instead. 

Making paper is pretty simple and very hands-on. I had students come up to the paper-making station two at a time while the rest worked on rolling paper beads from recycled magazines. 

First, you make a “paper smoothie” in the blender, using water and a big handful of ripped-up pieces of paper. We then added natural dyes and a handful of dried flowers of the student’s choosing. 

Then, you dump your paper smoothie out over a screen, give the screen a little jiggle to help spread the pulp around and shake the water out.  I varied this step a little from traditional paper making, where you dump the entire blender in a container, and then use the screen to scoop out the pulp.  I did it this way so the kids could easily make their own custom paper and clean-up would be fast in between students.  I also felt it cut down on mess (bonus!)

Finally, we flopped the screen on to pieces of thick wool felt, and used sponges to absorb the water.  I then pressed with an iron to flatten the paper and to get out a little more moisture to make it easier for the kids to take home.  

This hands-on lesson was so fun, the kids really enjoyed creating (and mess making!) their own paper.  Here is a little video I made of them working!