14 Days of Adventure – Day 7: Let’s Get Folding!
Day 7: Let’s Get Folding!
Paper-folding or origami, is a lot of fun and requires a great deal of focus and fine motor muscle movement. As such, it can be great exercise for students in persistence, patience and coordination! Today, I have collected some fun resources for you to practice your folding and make some neat creatures and toys!
First, you can practice some folding with a cloth, handkerchief, towel, table cloth; anything that is square. Print out the paper below and practice the different folding techniques the Japanese use to carry objects around. You can get some nice cloth and make it into a gift package as well!
Next up, I found this awesome origami site where you can make tons of neat and easy animals. The site is easy to use but also has some at different levels. It has printout instructions as well as animations to help you fold the paper. All you need is some paper. Make sure that your paper is square! Click on the picture or use the links on the left side under “Links”.
This is a very nice and easy to use site with paper models of animals and other things found in the polar areas. When you click on a picture, you get a video showing you how to fold your paper. You might have to wait a little to get the video, especially if you are trying to watch the Olympics on the computer at the same time. If you click on “Fold More Models”, they have another section of models on a different theme.
This site lets you design your own critters by adding faces and other parts to your critter. You can then print out your creation, fold it and have fun!
Here are some free paper toys that you can make yourself. Just print them out, cut, glue and enjoy. I especially like the marble mouse one!
This last one is a little harder and may require you to have adult help. The designs are neat and you get to make several well known objects from around the world, including cars, buildings and other things. Just a little tip: When you print them out, print them out on tougher paper and try to get your parents to enlarge them if they have access to a photocopier. They will also do it at Staples for not very much money!