School-Age: Origami

A fellow librarian did a program recently on origami, so I borrowed the idea for my school-age kids.


1. Reading
We read "More-igami" by Dori Kleber. It discusses how a kid master's the paper crane but only with lots of patience and practice. I felt like the book had a perfect message to it - the kids are not going to be great at doing origami at first but they need to have patience and keep at it to get better.

2. Discussion
I defined what origami is. We talked about different types/techniques of origami (modular, wet-fold, action, etc.). After, I showed them pictures of neat origami using the various techniques and we had a 'name-the-technique' trivia.


3. Activity/Craft
We spent quite a bit of our program working on origami. At the end of "More-igami", Dori Kleber includes step-by-step directions on how to make an origami ladybug. We also practiced making a origami fox as a group. I gave them print-outs of other origami critters to make or take home with them to practice making.

Notes: 

For the most part this was a super simple and fun program. We did the origami together as a group which worked well, and I had teen helpers jump in whenever a kid needed individual help. We had a lot of future origami masters at the end of the program!