The is week, our kindergarten scientists had the opportunity to make recycled paper. There are lots of steps involved in this recycling process, so we began the process on Tuesday and finished it on Wednesday. We started by taking 8 squares of toilet paper and tearing them up into very small pieces. We then put all the small pieces in a plastic jar and waited until Wednesday morning to see what was next!
We were so excited to get going on this on Wednesday morning. We quickly got our safety glasses and lab coats on and got to work. We added water to the plastic bottles, placed a lid on them and had to shake the bottles. This doesn't seem like it would be hard…but it was as we had to shake the contents of the bottles for ten minutes. Our arms got tired!!
Our next step was to get the paper pulp out of the bottles. We each got a small plastic tub and put a screen on top of it. Then we dumped the contents of the bottles onto the screen. The pulp stayed on top of the screen and any water went through the screen, into the tub.
Then we placed another screen on top of the pulp and squeezed out as much excess water as we could. We also used sponges to blot out the extra water.
If the recycled paper was dry enough, it would peel off of the screen easily. If ti was still too wet, then we used our plastic bottles like a rolling pin to squeeze out even more water!
Next we needed to get a piece of wax paper to put our recycled paper on to dry overnight.
This is what it looked like! Then we had to do what all scientists have to do…clean up!
WE did a little more investigating today with different types of paper and we learned what happens when you add water to certain types of paper. Paper towel absorbs water…wax paper repels water. You should ask your kindergartner what absorb and repel mean!
Next week…fabric!
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