May Projects: origami and paper arts
May Projects:
1st week: Simple Buttonhole Flower
2nd week: Swan Parent and Child
3d week: Origami Butterfly
4th week: Paper Plate Whirligig
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Simple Buttonhole Flower
April showers bring may flowers, so why not make a few origami flowers to celebrate the coming of spring. There are many origami flowers you can make, but one of my favorites is the simple 4 petal buttonhole flower. Unlike the tulip made in April, this flower is 3 dimensional.
Children may find this model a little hard at first, but they will love it and demand to make more.
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Origami Swan Parent and Child
I love this origami model: it's so cute plus it is a perfect project for Mother's Day. A mother swan and a baby swan made from one sheet of paper!
- make origami Swan Parent and Child
If you want your baby swan to be a different color than the mother swan (as shown in photo), then turn the paper over before proceeding to step 3 (see below). Then continue as with the original instructions. Turning over before step 3 will give the color change. I usually use the white part for the baby.
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Origami Butterfly
With origami flowers in bloom, one would expect to find some origami butterflies too. There are quite a few origami butterflies that you can make, but my favorite easy butterfly is found in this book by Michael LaFosse. This simple butterfly uses 2 sheets of paper and makes a darling butterfly in 5 steps.
If you can't get a copy of this book, you can try some of these other models. They are a little bit more challenging, so try them yourself to see which works best for your students.
- Flapping Butterfly by d farrelly. A cute model which you can squeeze between your finger. the squeezing causes the wings to flap. 9 steps. [see video of flapping]
- Stand Up Butterfly by A Anselmo. This model uses a dollar bill, but a rectangle will work. 7 steps. [middle photo]
- Traditional Butterfly: this one requires more steps to fold and the paper gets thick, but the results ave very satisfying. 14 steps. [bottom photo]
- Yoshizawa Butterfly: much beloved butterfly created by Grand Master Akira Yoshizawa. Looks great and is intermediate in difficulty. 9 steps.
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Whirligig and Kites
As summer approaches and children an anxious for summer break, I teach them to make outside play crafts like this paper plate whirligig and a kid friendly kite. The whirligig only uses a paper plate but the kite will require paper, skewers, string, tails, hole puncher, tape, and string.
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