I really enjoy origami.
While taking the TTC in high school, I came to enjoy the time I had to fold the rectangular newsprint transfers into shapes. For the most part, I made airplane-ish designs that bore little resemblance to actual vehicles. Twice, I made the main section of the USS Enterprise D -- complete with warp engines and main deflector.
Alas, once I began working, I drove and my love for folding paper diminished.
While getting wedding invitations ready, I happened upon The Japanese Paper Store, now known as The Paper Place, and rekindled my love of origami with an omnibus of ideas. Pad of paper and book in hand, I began to make both traditional and new takes on animals and other things. It was arduous to understand the notations, but I persevered and within a year or so, I had made a great many objects. Some successful, i.e. understandable, and some not so much.
Fast forward years later and I found online resources of many more ideas. Where it took me the better part of a year to make a good 8 page softcover book, I learnt how to fold a 6 page hardcover in just over 10 minutes. David Brill's book can be found here.
So, how to make all this work in one grade 8 class? It's a combination of Language Arts, Math and Art. Let's reverse start: it's Art because it's aesthetic and crafty. It allows those persons who, in their opinion, draw poorly a way to be creative in a practical and methodical approach. It's Math because it's folding according to a pattern that makes ample use of fractions and both symmetrical and asymmetrical value. Finally, it's Language Arts because it is a book that can be written in. Granted it's a small book, but oh so much can be written in so few words.
Follow the links and enjoy.
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