National Origami Day

Yesterday was National Origami Day and we were able to provide a program for 20 children in grades 2 – 4 for an hour in the evening. I first shared the story, The Origami Master written by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer and illustrated by Aki Sogabe.  It’s a relatively short story about friendship, but something that is very powerful and a great start to the program.

Afterwards, I taught the kids how to create an origami butterfly (that they were able to decorate with colored pencils) and we also learned how to create an origami jumping frog using a 3″x5″ notecard.  The kids loved testing out their frogs and were really delighted when their frogs were jumping and flipping all over the tables.  I had also planned to teach the kids how to create an origami crane, but we actually ran out of time.  I’ve found that teaching kids origami can be very difficult to explain  using verbal instructions, most kids need to see what I’m doing in order to replicate the folds and some kids need an extra helping hand which works well when you can pain an older child with a younger one.

Overall, the kids had a lot of fun and it was a great program to teach kids a unique and fun craft program.  I wish I would have remembered to mention the history of origami a little more, but we had a great time!