Earth Day: Create your own recycled bookmarks

Remember back in the day when you did a science fair project? Well, one year mine was on recycling. This one really stuck with me- I now do it every year with my class!

This project is messy hands-on fun!

Supplies needed:

• Shredded paper (Newspaper works fine- the kids can tear it. I got shredded paper from the office)
• A blender (an older one or one that you don't mind shredding newspaper in)
• Cheese Cloth
• Popsicle Sticks
• Hot Glue
• Old towels

Optional but extremely helpful items:

• Electrical tape ("waterproofs" the strainer)
• Water
• Food coloring (optional)
• Glitter (really optional)
• Flower seeds (now we are just getting crazy! I let the kids add in flower seeds in case they want to plant it when they are through with the project. Recycling the recycling project!)

Step 1 (Do this in advance):

Set four jumbo sized popsicle sticks together to form a square. Hot glue together. Cut a piece of cheesecloth to cover the square you made and glue on top. I also cover the popsicle sticks with electrical tape to keep the wood dry during the straining process.

(I'll add a picture of this later- sorry!)

Step 2-57: (side note: I always use the #57 when joking around with my students. The other day one of them asked me if I was 57 ! CLEARLY we need to work on number sense & age!!! hahaha)

Add a handful of paper into your blender. Cover it with water, allow children to add 2-3 drops of their favorite food color and blend for about a minute or until "soupy". Add in any optional ingredients such as glitter and flower seeds.

Dump ingredients onto cheesecloth strainer. Press down hard to drain all the water- do this over a pan/bowl or something else to catch the water. Press into towels to drain additional water. Remove bookmark gently from frame and allow it to air dry. Voila!