5 Simple Origami Projects For Kids: Apps to Enhance Kids Learning…

 

If you’re looking for a fun indoor activity to keep your kids busy on a rainy or cold afternoon, origami is a great activity that requires minimal supplies and is easy on the clean up. Kids love origami because they can work independently on their creation of making something beautiful out of a piece of paper. 

Even if you’re not an origami master yourself, there are tons of easy tutorials that you can learn alongside your child to make for a fun afternoon for everyone. In this article, we are going to talk about why origami is so much fun and show you 5 origami tutorials that kids will love!

 

Playing at home can be fun 

You might find yourself stumped on fun activities to do when you are at home with your children for a long period of time. Whether they are typically in a daycare program or school, sometimes you may find yourself grasping for ideas to keep them busy, help them learn, and have fun. Finding out-of-the-box ways to play at home can be fun. Think of it as a challenge to find things around your house to use in new ways or explore for the first time with your children. You want to keep their minds busy and their brains learning, and coming up with creative, unique activities is one of the best ways to do this – and to feel satisfied that they have had a fun and productive day when bedtime rolls around.

 

Origami is a great project because it doesn’t need a lot of preparation and hardly makes any mess! All you need is some paper to get started! Kids as young as 3 can even do some simple origami projects with some help from mom and dad on some of the folding, and these 5 origami tutorials that kids will love are geared at being simple enough for all ages to enjoy. There’s no need to involve scissors, glue, hot tools, or glitter, so there will be very little to tidy up when you’ve finished having fun.

 

Why is origami good for kids? 

Before we start on 5 origami tutorials that kids will love, let’s look at why you might choose origami in the first place. After all, it’s quite an unusual craft, and it might raise a few eyebrows – but there are lots of reasons that it’s ideal for your kids to try.  Origami is a great activity for kids of all ages. It can help them refine their fine motor skills, work on concentration, and utilize hand-eye coordination. These are such important skills that they will need for a wide variety of things throughout their life. 

 

If your child has difficulty focusing for long periods of time or gets frustrated quickly with independent play, origami is a great way to help foster more patience. Although the sometimes intricate folds of an origami project can bring up more frustration at first, encourage your child to stick with it so that they can gain confidence in the ability to succeed.

 

Another great thing about origami is that it encourages the use of kids’ imaginations. By making something like an animal or a flower out of just a simple sheet of paper, it helps them see what is possible with their own two hands. This is a powerful tool that will serve them well in the future as well.  Origami projects are also fun because they create a lasting craft for the child to enjoy, and they can teach their friends what they have learned. Because so little is needed by way of material, kids can share this activity with their friends, and even swap or gift their final projects to each other, which can be a great bonding exercise.

 

Furthermore, if you’re on the go, origami is a great travel activity, because it’s easy to slip into a bag, and the cleanup is so straightforward. No matter where you’re headed, you should have room for a few sheets of paper, and these could be enough to keep your child quiet for hours.

 

5 origami ideas

Ready to tackle an origami project with your child, but not sure where to start? Check out these 5 origami tutorials that kids will love that you can do at home today!

 

1. Origami Bird

One of the most classic origami shapes is the origami bird. This is an easy tutorial to do at home with your child. The origami bird is a very easy beginner’s project and all you need to do this on your own is an 8.5×11 sheet of paper.  This is a fun project to do if your child loves to look at birds in your yard. You can talk about the different types of birds that are in your area as you are creating your craft. Once you put it together, try to decide if it looks like any of the birds you regularly see. Let your child experiment and have fun with the shapes and the colors of the bird, too, and when they’ve finished, consider suspending their creation from a thread so that it can fly through the air. If your child really enjoys this activity, see whether you can make a whole string of birds, hanging from different levels, for them to admire.

 

2. Origami Boat

If your child is interested in water, this is a great project for you! The origami boat is relatively simple to make and also only requires a single 8.5×11 sheet of paper as well.  What is awesome about the origami boat is that it floats! Once you make your boat, you can take your boat to the bathtub, kitchen sink, or even outside in a pool or puddle and watch it float. This is a really fun way to explain floating in the water to kids and let them see it with their own eyes. 

 

If you have any running water nearby, take your child along to it and encourage them to race their boat against other things, like sticks or leaves, to see how different objects move in the water. This can turn into a great science project; encourage them to time different items and talk to them about why certain objects move better than others.  You might want to make more than one origami boat for this purpose, as it’s quite likely that yours will eventually get lost if you are floating it on a river or stream – but fortunately, these boats are so easy to make, this shouldn’t be an issue.

 

Of the top 5 origami tutorials that kids will love, this one is probably the most interactive, and your child can get ongoing fun and enjoyment out of their creation, so give this a go, especially if your child is interested in science and statistics.

 

3. Origami Finger Puppet

This is a fun tutorial that allows your child to decide what they want to make of it. This origami finger puppet can be transformed into any animal your child desires with a pen or some markers. You can let them decide if they want to make it a dog, cat, fox, bat, or really any animal that has pointy ears.  Once you’ve made your finger puppet, feel free to let your child be creative and decorate however they want. They can color on it, add a face, or even paint it. You will only need a 5×5 piece of paper and whatever tools you want to use to decorate your finger puppet to give it its own personality. 

 

Having a whole set of finger puppets to play with turns this from just another activity into a whole world of exploration. If your child is enthused, why not make a little puppet theater out of a shoe box or other cardboard box, and help them create a host of different characters to populate it with?

They will love adding more and more characters over time, which is a great way to keep them engaged with origami in the long term, and you can help them make up stories about the characters to spark more creativity. 

 

This is a great way to develop your child’s storytelling skills and may even be a good way to talk to them about the challenges they might be facing in life.

 

4. Origami House 

If your child loves to play with dolls or figurines, this origami house can be a fun new place for their favorite playthings to “live”. This house is pretty simple to make with some beginner-level origami folds and the outcome has so many open-ended play options.  You can make your origami house out of colored paper or make it with white paper and decorate it once it’s complete for a custom look. Once it’s made, your child can use it when playing with their dolls or figurines for endless hours of pretend play.  Combined with the puppet idea above, you can create a whole playset for your child to enjoy, using just paper! There’s really no limit on how the house can be used, so your child can adapt it in any way that they like, and keep adding to the decoration.

 

If you want to commit to a more crafty activity, you can get out sequins, buttons, paints, glue, and more, and let your child really tap into their creativity. Encourage them to decorate the house however they like, and help them turn it into a true work of art for the characters of their imagination to live in.

 

5. Origami Envelope

A fun origami project you could do at home with a ton of different uses is this easy origami envelope. You will just need a square sheet of paper or a folded 8.5×11 sheet.  The origami envelope is a fun craft because you can fill it with cute notes and fun little things to teach a younger child about putting something inside another container. If your child is older, you can show them how to make out an envelope to put in the mail and explain how mail is transported.  

 

Your child might enjoy giving notes to their friends using origami envelopes that they have made themselves, and this is a great way to encourage them to practice their writing skills, as well as their crafts. Nothing sparks creativity like the opportunity to pass secret notes and communicate with others in a special way.

You might find you also want to make a few of these envelopes yourself from time to time, and use them to pass on notes praising your child when they do something you are proud of. 

 

Alternatively, use them to enhance fantasies such as Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy by leaving notes for your child when these magical figures have visited – all made in the special origami paper your child loves. You can encourage them to write back in the same fashion, inspiring a wonderful fantasy that they’ll treasure for years.

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, you enjoyed these 5 origami tutorials that kids will love and found yourself inspired by the ideas. Origami is a truly wonderful way to get your child to enjoy crafts without having to turn your living room or kitchen into a disaster zone of paper scraps and glitter glue. It teaches patience, coordination, and fun, so give it a try and get your child to unlock the magic of paper folding.

 

This article provides you with a new activity outside of our products in the reading app for 3rd graders, 2nd graders, 1st graders, and preschoolers…

 

Meta Description

Looking for an easy rainy day activity for your kids? Check out these 5 origami tutorials for hours of fun play! 

 

References

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/201609/5-ways-origami-boosts-mindfulness

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/origami-4162885

https://www.origamiway.com/very-simple-origami-for-kids.shtml