This diagram will help you to instruct your students to build their own baleen plates. When finished making plates, insert the root portion into the slits on the plastic tubing, smallest pieces near the front and larger pieces near the back. When pieces are in the tubing, run your hand across them to mix the hair-like strands together.
Start with a paper plate like this one.	Cut along the dotted lines shown here. It will give a shape close to a triangle. Discard the rest of the plate.
After cutting this shape from the whole paper plate, take your scissors and cut the area where it says "Fray" into thin, vertical strips, leaving the top end attached to the body of the plate.	This is what your plate should look like when finished. The hairs face the inside of the mouth and the flat section is the root. The hairs will interlock and form a mesh that water can pass through but fish cannot.