Origami for Skill Development Among Children

Paper crafts, paper folding or origami is one of my favourite pastime and from few years I am teaching simple and basic paper folding/origami projects in my art/crafts class. As an interactive activity children enjoy following the instructions. I found that it appeals to the creative, inventive and constructive abilities of children.
Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. It literally translates as ori (folding) gami (paper). In Japan, Children learn origami at their mothers' knees. In the West, children are learning it at school. Research has shown that paper-folding, particularly in the elementary school years, is a unique and valuable addition to the curriculum.


Origami is not only fun, but it is also a valuable method for developing vital skills. As a teacher or parent you can adopt this creative hobby for skill development among children. 
Therapists have found that origami has a modifying affect on their patients, and they often use it as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. This post is about the benefits you get when you keep your kids busy with these art/crafts activities.



Origami for skill development: It can be adopted by educators, teachers, Psychologists, Physicians, Parents for educational, developmental, and therapeutic aspects. Origami is good for any age: from kids, those who start learning all by themselves, to persons of mature years who don't stop developing their own individuality. Schools have begun to realize the educational value of origami.  
It is a great hands-on activity and a wonderful resource that teaches students how to follow directions.

Below is a list of partial academic and cognitive skills involving Origami.

• Listening Skills, 
• Social Studies, 
• Visual Memory, 
• Reading Skills, 
• Sequential Memory, 
• Visual-Spatial Motor Skills, 
• Writing Skills, Concentration, 
• Verbal and Visual Memory, 
• Mathematics Eye-Hand Coordination, 
• Logical Reasoning, 
• Spatial Relationship, 
• Fine Motor Skills, 
• Problem Solving. 

Origami has a therapeutic effect on children. Many  have found Origami to be an inherently relaxing activity and its use as a stress reduction technique.

"Oriland.com" has mentioned 10 reasons to be involved in origami:
1. Development of fine 'motor skills' of both hands.
2. Development of intellectual abilities.
3. Development of creative abilities.
4. Activation of the Right and Left hemispheres of the brain.
5. Development of imagination.
6. Development of attention.
7. Development of memory.
8. Development of patience.
9. Emotional and aesthetic experiences.
10. Joy, satisfaction and pride in your own work!

Useful links and Related posts:
* The educational benefits of origami
* Origami in Education and Therapy
* The Educational Benefits of Origami
* Learn origami at the internet!
* 'Benefits of origami'
* Useful links and resources for paper crafts! 
* Origami - A Great Way to Train Fine Motor and Cognitive Skills

Making crafts with paper strips and newspaper

Paper is easily available product which can be used in variety of ways. You can encourage and help kids in creating crafts with newspaper or paper strips. Usually I keep a stock of colorful paper strips. At crafts class kids love to touch and feel paper strips and they love to create shapes or different objects. This article offers few tips and ideas how you can keep your kids busy with these paper crafts or sculptures.

Newspaper can be used to create crafts and paper sculptures.  “Newspaper sculpture” is a way for kids to create an art piece with tightly rolled-up pieces of newspaper. 


With a “newspaper sculpture,” children will use their hand-eye coordination. Encourage them to make their own sculpture. 

Before you begin the activity, prepare by having several wands of tightly rolled newspaper pre-made. This way, the children can dive right into the activity. Place the wands of newspaper rolls standing up (like a flower arrangement) in a bucket or container so they are easy for the children to grab. Lay out lots of rolls of masking tape of different colors.


 Bring the kids over to your activity area and let the kids start creating their own sculptures. Encourage them to bend the wands of newspaper into different shapes. Have them use the masking tape to help retain the shape of their sculpture and to tape together different pieces of newspaper rolls. You may offer idea of making a weaving mat using newspaper wands.
Learn more at: 'A place of our own.org'

Children love to use the paper strips.   Many objects, figures, shapes or 3D shapes, or mobiles can be made by just tying strings to them. This is a great way to teach children about 3 dimensional figures and space…. not to mention teaching them their basic shapes.


Just show them a few examples of figures or shapes and kids would come up with more ideas. 

Stars and Stripes or Shape Sculptures:   Cut different size strips of red, yellow and blue paper.
Fold some strips into circles, some into squares others into triangles. Cut out large shapes for a base. Arrange shapes and strips on your base and glue into place. 


Cut free-form shapes of varying sizes from colored card stock or scrapbook paper (ours measure 3 to 5 inches wide and 3 to 8 inches long). Snip two to four 1-inch slits into the sides of each shape. Build a sculpture by interlocking the pieces along the slits. 


 Useful links: 
 * Paper Flowers – Anyone Can Do That 
* Recycled Paper Weaving in Grade Two 
* Art Lessons For Kids 
* Summer Crafts For Kids: Sculpting With Paper Strips

Get origami projects or crafts ideas online

Origami can be used for skill development for educational, developmental, and therapeutic aspects. Origami is good for any age as it provide an entertaining and creative feeling when you are busy doing it.

For kids at preschool or kindergarten stage you need to teach them easy origami which they can learn themselves. Your instructions should be clear and easy to follow. You can find lot of sites and links online where you can get ideas, projects details and even step by step tutorial helping you learn origami projects or crafts ideas yourself or for your kids. This post is helpful for teachers, parents who are interested to start teaching this creative activity for kids.

* 'How to origami' is full of easy projects for children. You can get an idea from the pictures I have loaded here. These easy instruction are enough to start learning with basic folds. As you can see that the 3rd picture shows a table chair made with origami folds which seems difficult to make, but as first two pictures show easy steps to follow, you can easily learn it. Even your kids can follow these instructions by watching these pictures or online videos.

* 'Free Homemade bookmarks, crafts and gifts' 

* 'Origami Resources' Helps you make Origami crafts, Origami Crafts for children, free videos on Origami, Origami Aeroplane, Origami Flowers, Origami Animals etc.

* 'Simple Kids Crafts': Daily, Easy, Educational, Functional Children Arts and Crafts projects for children of all ages using easy to find materials such as recyclables, egg cartons, cardboard, paper, boxes, string, crayons, paint, glue, fabric and pompoms, pipe cleaners, beads, ribbons, construction paper and more. They offer toys, games, school crafts, experiments, FREE printable coloring pages/templates and craft recipes.

* 'Easy origami forkids'

* Paper the World offers simple origami of models that focus on endangered animal species.
It educates and teaches some charming origami animal figures to children so that they can enjoy the art and creativity of folding paper and making beautiful things from such common material.

Amazing paper craft blogs

Paper craft is not only limited to the paper folding or origami. You would be amazed to see the work poeple do with simple papers, as I was astonished to see the artistic creation. It is simplt ab art
According to Wikipedia

"Origami (折り紙 origami?) (from ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper") is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a given result using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper medium.

Origami only uses a small number of different folds, but they can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be different colors. Contrary to most popular belief, traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo era (1603-1867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper during the creation of the design. There are many different designs such as the traditional crane or the very confusing flower."

1-"Paper forest"
The name of the blog is "Paper forest" and it is for paper craft lovers. It might be surprising to know that origami or paper folding seems child's play, comparing to the craft shown at this blog.

Blogger "Jaime Zollars" is a painter and she loves making, constructiong paper mechanical toys or writes about them at blog. More about her at her blog: Jaime Zollars blog

Blog Paper Forest provides a lot of paper projects you may try to make yourself. There are other paper craft site links at the blog. There are lot of paper craft projects which are FREE to use, and every post or paper project is unique.

2- Peter Callesen.com

Peter Callesen is from Denmark, and he is a paper magician, becaue the craft he has created from flat piece of paper into a 3D form is unbelievable.

He uses the A4 blank sheet of paper, which in his opinion gives the paper sculptures a fragility which underlines the tragic and romantic theme of the works.

* Samples of his magic art work with A4 paper

3- Paper kraft.net is to guide people find the best FREE papercraft on the web promote the works of prominent and up-and-coming paper modelers.

Blog is created by Ron Rementilla.
Main focus of this site is on 3D (three-dimensional) paper models. Whenever you see the word "papercraft" it refers to "3D paper models". The types of genre included are anime, manga, video game, PC game, cartoon, and film. Also included are origami, paper automata, pop-up cards, and dioramas.

4- Paper craft world provides free paper models and papercraft goods.

5- Paper box world presents boxy paper toys, available for download free of charge.


6- SS42.com is directory of very talented paper model artists from all over the world that have created and offer free printable paper models, paper toys, cut-outs, paper dolls, printable paper crafts of cars, buildings, spacecraft, animals and more.
-Origami projects

7- Paper arts links at Craft pop.com

Useful links and resources for paper crafts!

I love making paper crafts, because it is easy to make, you don't have to bother about buying expensive supplies, and easy to discard, when you are finished with your projects. But first let us know about paper craft, as it is different from origami or paper folding.

Definition of Origami: "Origami, the art of creating various shapes from a single piece of paper, is a pastime that has been enjoyed in Japan since ancient times."

I have collected some useful links and resources, which are mostly FREE to use. There are a lot of ideas to keep your child busy and not only children but adults can also enjoy making these crafts.

1- DLTK's Crafts for Kids features a variety of fun, printable children's crafts, coloring pages and more including projects for holidays, educational themes and some of our children's favorite cartoon characters. The site is run by "Leanne, a mom with two girls and husband.

* DLTK's Crafts for Kids

* Note on Crafting with Preschoolers

2- Crafts bits provides resources for teachers, therapists, and craft enthusiasts. Craftbits.com is an independent craft website.
Site is created at sunny Brisbane on the east coast of Australia. At Craftbits.com you can find free crafts, free craft projects, diy craft gift ideas, christmas crafts, kids crafts, sewing crafts, candle making and more.
* Paper cragts page

* Kids crafts page

3- * Tips and techniques at paper crafts section at "Michaels.com.

4- Paper crafts magazine blog with news and paper craft ideas.
* Paper Crafts projects

5- 'Family fun.go.com" has some good paper craft projects at: 3D paper crafts for kids

6- "Creative Park" presents every kind of papercraft- from simple toys to intricate crafts, there's something for all the family! - and it's free to download!
Make fun with 3D paper craft
There are a lot of origami ideas and these ideas can be downloaded