Kids LOVE origami, at least my students always have. In an effort to get kids working together as a team, here is a fun way to assign groups and ‘solidify’ partnerships using one simple origami fold. Students can leave their group piece in a special place to indicate that they are working together. The pieces can then be gently undone to dissolve or change groups. If the idea intimidates you a little bit, don’t turn away yet, this idea involves only one piece of paper with a few very simple folds! Here goes…
In order to make the directions easy to follow for you and your students, I’ve created a quick video of the one-paper fold, then the assembly for each group size from 1-6. Each student chooses one piece of paper that is perfectly square. You can cut colored paper to size, or use real origami paper. Each student will be represented in their group by their own unique paper, and will join their paper to the other group members to create a new shape – depending on the number of members in their team.
1 piece of paper per student (use a variety of colors, or have them label, design, color, or mark their papers to make them unique.
This is what each individual’s completed piece will look like.
2 pieces go together to form a square for two partners.
3 pieces can fit together to create a 3-D hexahedron.
4 pieces fit together to create a pin wheel.
6 pieces can fit together to create a cube.
And if you’re up to the challenge of creating something that represents every individual in your class, you can try the “star” made from 30 identical pieces of paper, folded the exact same way.
If all of this seems like too much for your age group, click on the Origami Club Website IMAGE above to find more videos.
To find some more great Origami videos, and more ideas specifically for Valentines Day, read a previous post here.
Thank you to Brooke R. for her recent comments on Teacherspayteachers.com.
“This is fantastic! I love it! It is helpful for me and for my students.” – January 23, 2020
