How do we make paper? Step one...

The investigators have been exploring sustainability and the small ways in which we can help the world.  As we have been talking a lot about recycling we decided that this week we would recycle some of our own paper from the yellow bin.  Our first step was to rip up the scrap paper into small pieces and put in into the bowl.  This took time and persistence until we had enough paper ripped up to create the first step of our pulp.  Then we added some hot water and left the paper to soak over night.

The next day we were excited and interested to see what our paper now looked like.  Wow, the water was all green and the paper had mostly sunk to the bottom of the bowl.  We then took the opportunity to explore the paper with our hands, is was all soft and squishy.

Out came the kitchen wiz and we were ready to wiz up the paper into pulp.  We added some paper and some water and waited expectantly as we checked that everything was safe before we the turned it on.  The red light went out which told us that yes we were ready to go. WIZZZZZZZZZZZZZ went the paper.

When we opened the wiz the paper had turned to pulp!  

Wow, our pulp was a green colour...

"It looks like slime" said Emmy

"It looks like sick" said Macy

Time to explore with our hands again this time the pulp was cold, soft and we could squeeze it with our fingers.  We added some more water and left it to soak together for the night.  Tomorrow we will use the paper making frame to create the paper.  Stay tuned to see how the next step of our paper making goes!