China Activities!!!

We have been studying China this week and have had opportunities for lots of fun China activities. We started the week learning to write and say some Chinese numbers.

Next, we made a Popsicle stick abacus...

And finally, since the Chinese were the ones to discover how to make paper, we thought we would try our hand at that. We started out by ripping pieces of paper into small bits, we used a mixture of plain white paper and newspaper, but any type of paper will work. Fill the blender half full of paper...

Add warm water and blend into a fine pulp...

Add 3 to 4 blender loads of pulp to a large basin of water...

Stir well...

Next, you will need some sort of mold to dip down into the basin. Nathan made this one for me using paint stirrers and a piece of window screen.

After all the excess water has dripped off the screen you lay a sheet of fabric on top, remove it from the mold and place it on a cookie sheet to dry.

After they are dry you simply lift them off and should be able to use them as sheets of paper!