Ever wondered what can be done with a bag of shredded paper? My special education students asked themselves that very question when they were given a bag of shredded paper. You've heard "when given lemons, make lemonade"? We were given shredded paper and made paper log bricks.
Our school is a rural school located in the central area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
We have a high percentage of low socio-economic families. Our school is at 70% free or reduced lunches. Many of our students struggle in school and want to do their best but are not always engaged in the importance of an education.
One of the biggest challenges when teaching my special education students is keeping them engaged, mentally and physically. My students collect recycling from the classrooms once a week. I am able to reinforce civil mindedness of taking care of our school and our environment. We researched the impact on our school's budget as we are reducing the number of garbage collections.
My Project
We no longer have access to shredded paper so we now need a heavy duty, jam proof shredder to provide the raw materials for our brick project. My students will be able to re-purpose recycled paper to make paper log bricks We will use the heavy duty, jam proof paper shredder to shred the recycled paper into small pieces. Those pieces are then soaked in water for a few days until it's softened. The water and paper mixture is then compressed in the log brick maker and dried for a few days. Once they are thoroughly dried, the bricks are ready to use in a fire place, camp fire or even to heat a sauna.
My students will learn that there are alternative uses items that may be destined for the landfill. They will see that something as simple as paper can be recycled it into something useful.
The donations to my project will allow my students to learn lifelong habits of considering reuse of objects instead of tossing things in to the trash.
Use of the paper shredder to make paper log bricks will re-enforce the concept that we all live on this earth and we all need to take care of it. This project will let my student "Learn without Limits" as this is a hands-on, life long skills that can't be obtained from textbooks.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Clark and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.