Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into creative figures and shapes. The art of Origami holds a bunch of benefits and has proven of use when it comes to a child’s development. Origami can serve as an educational hobby, keeping them entertained as they learn. Every finished art product will bring them joy and a feeling of accomplishment, little ones can even use their art as DIY play figurines. Everything takes a little practice, but once your little one gets the hang of it, they will learn that perseverance leads to satisfying results. We bring you several of the endless benefits of engaging your little one in the art of Origami and few easy fold tutorials for your little ones to start with.
Improves Fine Motor Skills & Brain Development
When a little one is engaged in the art of origami, their fingers come to play to create specific shapes out of the paper. This ability to skillfully move their fingers to create detailed shapes and figurines are key when it comes to a child’s development. Children who learn how to work their fingers well will, in turn, be good at sports activities and have good rhythm. Having them use their fingertips to fold detailed origami sends signals to the brain which makes it a great activity to train the brain.
Develops Imagination & A Sense Of Colour
Origami will have little ones figuring out a puzzle to reach the final art product, this encourages them to use their imagination and pick-up problem-solving skills. Little ones can explore by using many different colours of paper when creating a figurine, the image often changes depending on the colour used. Origami gives them the ability to explore their imaginations and play around with colours, design and shapes. Origami helps in developing a child’s creativity, builds their will to complete whatever they start, in other words, stay determined.
Enhances Concentration & Spatial Awareness
As mentioned before, Origami requires us to use our fingertips to create intricate shapes. This enhances concentration, Origami also sometimes requires us to fold various sides of the paper at one go, which help little ones study math skills, such as fractions and geometry. Increased levels of concentration improve spatial awareness in turn which is the ability to be aware of oneself in a certain space.
Math Skills
Let’s take a look further into the math skills that Origami latch onto little ones-
Fractions
Folding a piece of paper can demonstrate the fractions in a tactile way. Origami illustrates the concepts of one-half, one-third, or one-fourth by folding paper. Get your little ones to estimate how many folds does it take to make a certain shape. Have them fold the paper in half continuously, this will demonstrate to them the concept of infinity.
Geometry
The art of Origami has been known to strengthen an understanding of geometric concepts, formulas, and labels. Incorporate geometry lessons into Origami folding by labelling an origami structure with length, width, and height, little ones will learn key terms and ways to describe a shape.
Encourages Your Little Ones To Have A Sense Of Accomplishment
Let your little ones pick the type and colour of origami paper and what they desire to make. Little ones will get excited when they see a bunch of coloured paper and styles. When little ones begin to make the various styles on their own design, they will gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. This will tickle their fancy and engage further in the art of origami, they will take initiative to learn new shapes themselves.
Basic Origami Tutorials
Paper Boat
Start with your rectangular paper, orient it vertically, with the long edges going up and down. Fold the bottom half up to the top.Fold the bottom right corner over to the left corner and make a small pinch, just enough to crease the paper. Open it back up.
Using the crease as a guide, fold the left and right bottom corners up and to the middle. Flatten the folded pieces down. Rotate the paper. Fold one layer from the bottom up along the bottom of the front flaps.
Flip the paper over to the other side. Fold the bottom edge up in the same way. Unfold, and then fold the bottom right corner in along the crease you made. Repeat on the bottom left flap.
Re-fold the bottom edge back up. Open the bottom of the model. Look at the corners. Flatten and then insert the overlapping flap on the left underneath the right section.
Fold one layer up to the top. Repeat on the back. Open the bottom of the model.
Pull apart the left and right flaps. Flatten it out, in the shape of a boat. Open it slightly. The triangle in the middle resembles a sail.
Fish
Start by folding a square piece of paper diagonally (both sides) and in half (one side) – crease and unfold as shown. Hold the paper as indicated with blue spots and fold towards the centre to get a triangle shape.
Now hold the right bottom corner of the triangle and fold it toward the centre along the crease shown on the first image above. Do the same with the other corner – we got fishtail!
House
Start with the paper with the colour you’d like on the roof facing down. (This house will have an orange roof.) Fold the paper in half, then unfold. Fold the top edge of the paper down to the crease you just made in the middle.
Flip the paper over, left to right, and fold the bottom edge up to the middle crease. Make a small mark in the middle where indicated. Bring the right edge over to the left and align. Don’t fold it all; just make a small mark at the top.
You can see the little crease in the middle. We’ll now be folding where it is indicated. Bring the right edge to the mark we just made in the middle. Only the fold the lower section (the blue part, in this case). Pull the flap out to the right. You can now flatten that flap.
Repeat all of the steps on the left side. You can now flip the house over to the other side, and have a cute little origami house! Go ahead and draw a window, door, or go crazy with the decorations!
