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Can you make paper hold up books? You certainly can! With just 4 pieces of paper and a little bit of scotch tape, we help up 27 books!
We did an experiment this week with our new packs of Boise Paper to see which shape and which hight of paper would be the strongest. We really did make paper hold up books and my kids were AMAZED at how strong it was! (I am a brand ambassador for Boise Paper and as such have received free products as well as compensation in exchange for this post. All ideas and opinions are my own.)
How to Make Paper Hold Up Books:
My kids wanted to know which shapes would be strongest, so we folded paper into squares, circles and triangles and taped them together. Then I decided to add another component and test the height as well. We made a set of the same shapes but half the height. We made two types of circle ones, tightly wrapped and loosely wrapped to see if that made a difference.
We made four of each shape and size and then set a piece of paper on top of it. We tested the short and the tall ones at the same time. and placed books on them one at a time to see which would last the longest.
I got the most pictures of the tightly rolled paper because that was the one that held up the longest and the most weight.
We started with the triangle shaped papers. These ones held 8 for the short papers and only 4 for the tall triangles. The squares lasted through 5 books with the tall papers and 7 with the short. The circles were definitely the strongest. The widely wrapped circles held 13 for the tall ones and 23 for the short ones. Our tight wrapped papers held 27 for the tall pieces and 24 for the short ones.
My kids did guess that the tightly wrapped ones would hold the most books, but I think they were completely surprised by exactly how many. They ran out of skinny books so they started getting bigger and heavier books as we went on. As soon as we finished, they asked if we could do it again!
With just paper, tape and scissors you can do this exciting experiment with your kids! 
We are happy to be partnering with Boise Paper for a few months to bring you some FUN paper projects. We received 2 reams of Boise Paper: the Boise X-9 Multi-Use Copy Paper and also the Boise Polaris Multipurpose Paper. You can pick up Boise paper at your local office supply stores or online at Office Depot. You can find Boise Paper on Facebook and Twitter, too!
Some GREAT things about this company: They help the American Red Cross with financial support and by printing disaster preparedness tips on select packaging. They also are an exclusive partner with Box Tops for Education. And one more great thing, they have a Project Up program that helps turn abandoned urban areas into parks and green spaces!
See some other fun things you can do with a little bit of paper:
6 Paper Tricks that Seem like Magic
rebecca says
March 8, 2017 at 3:25 pmwould lined paper work???
Karyn Tripp says
March 8, 2017 at 6:59 pmI think so! Give it a try. Doesn’t hurt. 🙂
no bueno says
January 8, 2019 at 11:38 amwould newspapers work?
Olivia Robinette says
August 23, 2019 at 9:11 amDoes computer paper work to build the tower
Karyn Tripp says
August 26, 2019 at 2:08 pmYup! That’s what we used.