The Grade 5/6 class at Twin Rivers Elementary School in Castlegar had fun making paper this week in Beyond Recycling. This hands on activity really showcases the raw materials, trees and water, and their role in creating paper. The “mini paper making factories” were set up with all the equipment: water, shredded newspaper, coloured paper, a blender, pulp mold, rolling pins, and towels – lots of them! While the students were having fun moving through all the steps, we discussed how much water is used in making pulp, the building block of paper. For example, an estimated 10 L of water is required to make a single sheet of paper in todays modern paper process. Approximately 10,000 sheets of paper are made from one average pine tree, which seems like a lot, however, when we think about how much paper is used for one school/year (300,000 sheets) and how many public schools are in BC (1,586) we are looking at close to 50,000 trees that are harvested just for paper in schools!! This is why its so important that we recycle ALL paper in our schools. Less extraction of raw materials. Meanwhile, students continued to make pulp, place in the molds, and extract the water from the pulp by pressing and rolling. When finished, the paper is set to dry for a few days and then each students unique piece of paper will be kept until the spring. Our idea is to have the students make an Earth Day pledge and write it on their paper and showcase it to the rest of the school in an art installation. Great job Mme Russel’s class!
