The Origami Forum

I'm doing an internship for an art teacher, and she's currently teaching a class of about 15 kids, all around the age of 10 or so. One of the days I'll be helping her she'd like me to teach them some origami, for about an hour or two. I have more then enough kami of different sizes, and I'm learning a few Maekawa models to teach them. If anybody has teaching tips concerning children, or model recommendations, it would be greatly appreciated.

Don't fold something that has a lot of repeat steps. Maybe 1 or 2 in succession, but otherwise they lose interest/get annoyed doing 4 of the same fold on a model with no noticeable progress.

Be patient. Origamists are all naturally blessed with a sort of extended patience, but not everyone else is.

Have fun with it and try to be as relaxed and humorous about it as possible. If someone's getting frustrated, fold it for them. For all our sakes, it needs to be a positive experience.

Hope I helped, I've taught elementary kids for several years now. Just keep it to some simple models. Nothing harder than a Traditional Crane, and there's some good simple models that are fairly expressive if you stick to the minimalist style.

http://zs-bystrice.cz/index.php/akce-d/911-origami

I've done this only once and with smaller kids 6-7 years old, but from my experience, you can tell them something about origami, but not for long time (max 5 -10 minutes). I've talked about where it came from, some info about Akira Yoshizawa, etc. Then I showed them my models and as you can see in first link above I also let them touch those. All of models returned to me unharmed. Then I showed pictures of some most complex/stunning models that exists (because I can't fold them ) just to show them how beautiful Origami is.

For demonstration I brought already folded Owl, designed by Davor Vinko and unfolded it right in front of them to show them that this is only one piece of paper, no cuts, no glue.

I have prepared squares from standard copy paper at home before and give them to kids to teach them Simple duck. (seen on video with Joseph Wu on YT). That went well, mostly without my personal help.


Kids were so excited that they wanted more so I showed them how to fold flapping bird. There were 2 teachers presented in classroom that helped me a lot, because there were like 30+ children. This time, I had to revisit each step personally with most of the kids, so it took some time.

Anyway it was fun, but for a next time I would be happy for smaller count of children and also older ones

One tip of advice. Don't show them the possibilities of origami right at the start. Teach them to fold simple things first, and then after a lesson or two, start showing them the complex models. Do this or else they will want to fold the complex ones and won't be dedicated to trying the simple ones that they can actually do.

Montrol models are also good beginner ones. And some traditional. But doing some Montrol and Maekawa models will ensure the kids something new where as some of the kids have seen a orizuru before.

15 kids is a good number. I tried teaching 30 kids how to fold some origami, but it was difficult getting them all to see the folds I was making. I suggest you fold with a significantly larger piece of paper than them just so that you emphasize intricate folds (if there are any in the models you choose) and so that they can see your folds better.

Last tip is to go slowly and ask them after each step if anyone needs help. I'm sure this was obvious, but who knows.

I have taught some kids before. One tip is do NOT say the correct terms for the folds (squash fold, petal fold, sink), because they tend to get really confused. I also think teaching Jeremy shafer's models would be a good idea because most of his models are directed towards children. If a kid gets stuck on a step, then let them try to fix it themselves. If you continue to be stuck help them with it otherwise they will get pissed off and end up ripping up the paper XD Do not teach them any Lang models (even simple ones) since his models are all mathematical and will most likely give the kids a headache. Hope this helps,
Justin

I remember trying to teach 13 year olds and it was hard enough. cowburger - the lang models from origami design secrets, in chapter 1 aren't that hard, paperlion - try maybe emu, jet plane, or one of those other really simple ones if you have the book. Get the kiddies to listen, as the most common mistake you will find with teaching them, is that they do not listen. that is probably the most annoying, and repetitive thing that you will find - patience is key here, and you may find yourself running out of it, however patient you are. being a good, clear speaker, and being able to explain steps clearly without technical jargon is key, and keeping them engaged. you may want to actually teach the kids some of the expressions used for different folds before you start, to make it easier to teach. it depends on their intelligence of course, but it helps a lot. That's all I can think of for now.

the modern einstein wrote:...they do not listen.

Indeed, that is what children profess in!