Origami Jeep

Origami is a fantastic way to give children plenty of opportunities to work with shapes.

While folding they are not only listening to instructions and manipulating the paper shapes but you can also add a few assessment questions in as you proceed - and encourage the children to ask you (and each other) questions about the shapes they are making.

Origami models can also offer good cross curricular links. Steve and Megumi Biddle's wonderful book "Amazing Origami for Children" started me off way back in 1994 when I used a simple model of a house to link with a topic on homes... the fold described here produces a very versatile jeep/car/lorry model.

We found this to be so successful we've even added further instructions in the form of a comic. Click the icon on the right to see what this looks like. These instructions can be downloaded from the pdf attachment link, below

I used to give the children a square of paper each and have a larger (demonstration) square myself. Folding the larger square slowly against the board while explaining what to do. A small lump of blue-tak is useful to stick the paper temporarily to the board (or wall) while checking what the children are doing. If you try this with a whole class (yes, I have done it!) you will probably need adult support for some children; alternatively, working with a small group offers excellent assessment opportunities for both mathematics and speaking & listening skills.

Here's a short description of the folding technique together with some suggested questions:

Start with a square of paper, coloured on one face - coloured face down.

Questions:

• What shape is the paper / how do you know?
• Rotate it on the table... what shape is it now?
• What is special about this shape?
  

Fold the square in half twice and then unfold completely.

Questions:

• What shapes can you see / how many?
• What is special about the crease lines?

Fold the bottom part of the square up to meet the middle crease.

• What shape(s) has this new fold made?
• What is the same about the two shapes?
• What is the different about the two shapes?

Fold a small triangle on half of the lower rectangle.

• What shape have you just created?
• What is the large green shape called?
• What is special about it?
• How many different shapes can you see now?

Repeat this with the other half of the lower rectangle

• What is the green shape now?
• What is special about the crease-line?
• Can you tell us if there is anything special about the whole paper now?

Fold up two small triangle on the points of the larger triangles

Turn the paper over and fold the large triangle

• What is special about this shape?

Turn the paper over again, now fold the top half down

Fold this flap back up again, but about a centimetre lower than the previous fold

Turn the paper over... the finished jeep / van / truck

Don't forget we have an Illustrated Comic Version of these instructions available for download.

Below are four of my favourite origami books - each one perfect for introducing simple folds (and related shape concepts) to children. Hover over the images to find out more (Amazon affiliate links)

If you want to inspire your children further with more complex origiami techniques, it may be useful to show them these examples by Brian Chan "Still life from stationary" [Mail Online]

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