Simple project for a class of 4/5 year olds

[booggerboy]

Hi All,

I'm going to be doing some work with a class of 30 young children (4 and 5 years old - reception class here in the UK). I think I will end up spending a couple of afternoons teaching; rotating through groups of 4 children to cover the whole class. My thoughts:

1) I need some super-simple folds for some of the children.
2) I would like to have an overall display piece at the end (I can put extra work into this).
3) I might end up doing a little bit of whole-class time to start things off (perhaps I will be able to tell a story during this to capture interest).

For example we could end up doing a "garden scene" with models ranging from thin green strips of paper m/v folded for grass to hopping frogs and simple blintz-flowers.

It would be great to hear about any ideas from members here for the overall topic and sorts of folds. Please feel free to reply even if you haven't worked with young children!

What fun,

bb

[shortloldude]

Maybe try the origami duck? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vna2dis7Y3s It might be too difficult though, but maybe a variation without some of the folds to make it a bit easier.

[zxop9]

I started origami when I was that age and found the models you suggested to be of average difficulty (like a blitzed base). That being said when I tried to teach my friends and siblings how to fold them they did not have the patients to fold it; they said it "took too long" and they "got bored". I would suggest stuff one can fold from a piece of printer paper a like a hat or sail boat to avoid the difficulty of teaching them how to cut a square. Just my two cents, hopefully non of this is redundant lol.

[jsu718]

The water balloon or flapping bird are always good... the end result is worth it for most of them.

[Gerardo]

It would be great to hear about any ideas from members here for the overall topic and sorts of folds. Please feel free to reply even if you haven't worked with young children!

I improvised this models and taught them to a four-year-old friend. She was super happy with the results!

DOGS:



CATS:



I also wish to turn those folds into a bear model. By folding under the tip of the cat ears and glueing them to the middle of the body, that way the two side tips will look like arms .

I hope this gives you some ideas... have fun teaching!

[origami_8]

Simple action models are always great like for example the grasshopper, balloon, tumblers, fluttering butterflies or spinners. Small children usually like to draw on their models so you might plan in some time for them to decorate their models with faces and the like.

[Ondrej.Cibulka]

Four years old children will not fold water bomb, it is too complicated, the same for flapping bird. Together with simple stuff from big rectangle (mentioned above) try fortune teller, for expample. No squash, no petal fold, no inside-outside reverse fold. OK, one squash fold for steamboat

[booggerboy]

Thanks for the suggestions all!

I think that I agree with Ondrej that M/V folds will be all most of them can manage (and I have to plan for the lowest ability, although I can have some extension work).

Anna - I think you are right about colouring/decorating (either before or after). I'll have a think about that.
Gerardo - I like them - nice and simple recognisable results - that's the sort of thing that we can do.
Shortloldude - I think that duck is pretty simple, and I could help with the pivot/squash.
zxop - I'll provide the paper, so there won't be any need for making square.

Hmmm - I could even help by doing some pre-creasing / marking the folds to help with references. I will be able to spend time outside the lesson to create extra stuff and sort out paper etc. I'm emailing the teacher today to see if she had anything in mind that I'll have to take into consideration.

bb

[origami_8]

My experience with small children is that they often fold more accurate than adult people, but have a far shorter attention span. I don't think pre-creasing for them is necessary.

If you need some more ideas you can also look here: http://www.origami-club.com/

[malifold]

Teach them a paper plane.

[Gerardo]

Gerardo - I like them - nice and simple recognisable results - that's the sort of thing that we can do.

I'm really glad you liked them. Of course you're welcome to use them if you wish.

Playing with my friend we discovered they are also action models! If you press the sides of the heads they open their mouths like this . You can make them talk or you can make them bite each other or someone else's fingers... hihihihi.

We folded this ones this weekend


TEDDY BEARS:

[booggerboy]

Hi All,

I did two afternoons in the end, probably from 1:30 to 3:15 (end of the school day). To start with I led a 20 minute whole class session, with 30 kids sitting on the carpet. I talked about folding and paper, demonstrated m/v folds (and asked the children to guess what they were called), showed a few folded models for them to guess what they were. I didn't have a "story" or anything, as I didn't get round to thinking of one in time.

Then I ran 10-15 minute sessions with groups of 5/6 kids. On the first day we made John Smith's simplified jumping frog (found here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peterjohn.rootham-smith/ ). It was exactly the right level for the age group.

On the second day we just went straight to groups of 5/6 and made Rick Beech's pecking crow (action model). This was a little too hard, and I basically had to fold both of the rabbit-ears to finish the model off. But I managed to get through all 30 children by the end of the day. [I was going to do John Smith's butterfly, but I accidentally started to fold the crow in the first group, and so had to do it with all the kids).

I think that harder models would perhaps have been possible if I'd had smaller groups and more time, but I'm not sure that their attention would have held.

If I was going to spend more time folding with 4/5 year olds I would certainly find some more m/v only simple models.

bb

[Ondrej.Cibulka]

Your experience is very interesting, thank you very much that you share it with us. It should be usefull!