Earth Day Activity: Seed Paper Globes

Ingredients

• 5-6 pieces of recycled paper
• Food coloring (alternatively, use colored paper)
• Seeds (small, thin seeds work best)
• Biscuit cutter
• Piece of screen material or a splatter screen
• Cooling rack

Instructions

1. Rip the pieces of paper into small bits and place into bowls. You?ll need one bowl for each color you want to use. For the globes, we used one bowl for blue and one smaller bowl for green.

2. Add warm water and mix well so all of the paper is soaked.

3. Add a few drops of the food coloring, as desired. (Alternatively, you can use colored paper and simply add warm water.)

4. Let the paper soak in the water for 3-5 hours, or overnight.

5. When the paper is well soaked, mix the paper into a pulp using a hand mixer (with an adult's help!), and then drain any excess water. Leave enough water to make sure the paper is very moist!

6. Add your seeds to the pulp and mix by hand. Very small flower seeds, such as snapdragons or sweet William, work well. You could also use carrot seeds if you prefer to create an edible garden!

7. Put the piece of screen material over the cooling rack. Place the biscuit cutter on the screen. Spoon some of the blue pulp into the center of the biscuit cutter and press down to fill the circle. Press and spread the mixture to make a uniform thickness of about ¼? thick. Add some ?continents? by pressing green pulp bits on top.

8. Leave the screen in a warm spot and let dry for about 24 hours day. Next to a sunny window is best. If after 24 hours you find your globes aren?t completely dry, a hair dryer can help speed things along ? but have an adult help!

9. When your globes are completely dry, carefully remove them from the screen. Now, you can share them as is, or paste them on construction paper or cardstock to create an Earth Day card. Our crafter has made these into cards with important Earth Day tips, such as ?If you are not using the light turn it off" and "Don't leave the water running when brushing your teeth.?