Video 5: How to make your own paper making frame and paper

Intended audience: Primary school science and technology teachers and learners

I have been doing paper-making workshops with children for 20 years where we recycle waste paper to make decorative recycled paper. The problem is that all website videos I have ever been able to find show you how to make paper using an expensive wooden frame. This means that if you show either learners or teachers how to make paper, they will never do so at home because the frame is too difficult to come by. This video shows how to make an effective frame using a plastic container and stretchy mesh that is used to pack lemons in supermarkets. Now, student teachers can all leave my workshops with their own frames that they can use with their learners in their classrooms OR which they can help their own learners to make for themselves. This greatly extends the potential for implementing this activity in poorly resourced classrooms. Also, it combination with the ‘why recycle paper’ video, it is an effective way of showing the relationship between science and technology in primary school classrooms.