Origami Houses and Car Designs

Submitted by: Jeryl Hollingsworth, La France Elementary, LaFrance, S.C.
UNIT: Community - Architecture - Design
Lesson: Origami Houses - Art Cars
Grade Level: First Grade (adaptable to other elementary grades)

 

Origami Folded House (first class session)

Objectives: SW demonstrate knowledge of paper folding

Standards (from S.C.) I-A, (Understanding and applying Media, Techniques, and Processes- Use a variety of media, techniques and processes to communicate ideas, experiences and stories through their artworks)

IV-A Understanding the Visual Arts in relation to History and Culture- Identify specific artworks and styles belonging to particular artists, cultures, periods, and places.

 

Lesson:

Combined lesson of folded origami house and design a vehicle. Lesson could be done in either order, I usually do the house first and then the vehicle and during the third class session we finish everything up and put it together...

 

Grade level:

First grade (could be adapted for other levels-I use it with first grade because they do a community unit in social studies)

 

Vocabulary: Origami, details, shingles, overlapping, gable

 

Materials:

Copy paper - 8.5" X 11" (21.5 x 28 cm), photos of previous houses students have done (I show on the big screen TV. hooked to my computer - you could make overheads, origami books (See below), AquaMarkers, Crayons.

 

Books

Easy Origami - A collection of 32 projects for novice origami hobbyists, clearly illustrated with easy-to-follow instructions that even beginning papercrafters can follow with successful results. Subjects range from an ultra-simple hat, cup and pinwheel to the more challenging figures of a penguin and a piano.

 

Absolute Beginner's Origami - By following the foolproof methods set out in this instructional, even those who have never tried this intriguing craft before will soon find themselves able to turn out sophisticated origami pieces. Includes 200 color illustrations, ten sheets of origami paper and ten sheets of practice paper.

 

Origami Jewelry - With precise instructions and four-color photographs, Ayako Brodek shows readers how to create 40 elegant and unusual pieces of jewelry. Ayako Brodek's love of origami began when she was a little girl in Japan. She founded OriCraft and teaches origami to all ages at local libraries and schools.

 

Kits

Origami Extravaganza! Kit (Craft) - The kit contains: A 96-page book with complete instructions for 45 different projects, and 160 7x 7-inch sheets of folding paper in an array of color including patterned and foil sheets.

Origami Fun Kit for Beginners - This affordable kit has everything beginners need to master the age-old art of paper folding, including three books by origami expert John Montroll. The kit also contains sheets of primary colored, multicolored, and metallic paper, 3 starter books, 55 projects, Over 1,000 illustrations and 96 sheets of authentic origami paper.

 

Activity: TW introduce origami - define, show books about origami, show Japan on the map. Talk about this art form being from that country (I talk about learning origami from the children of the house I stayed at when I was on a Fulbright trip)

 

I have directions for the house in several different origami books, but I looked on line and here is a link that shows how to do it: http://svam.org/

 

TW demonstrate folding technique for house but don’t tell them what you are making-have students guess what is being made.

 

TW show ways to decorate house, ask what you could add (students will suggest doors, windows-talk about different shapes, shingles, flowers outside house, lines to show siding on house, etc.- you can open the sides of the house and draw a person inside or things inside the house) It’s good to have some photos of real houses to show shingles, etc...

 

TW show slides of student made origami houses.

 

SW fold house following steps for folding house with Teacher.

 

SW decorate house using markers, Colored Pencils, crayons, etc...

 

Most students will not be finished with decorating in one 45 minute session- we save them for the next class-early finishers can make a second house.

 

Tie-in to Mathematics

Genuine Origami: 43 Mathematically-Based Models - Prominent origami artist and scientist Robert J. Lang, Jun Maekawa approaches origami from the perspective of mathematical and geometric principles.

 

Link: Origami Club - According to Makio Kawashima, Japanese art teacher, the site is "The most popular and famous origami web site on the planet."

 

Lesson: Two Wheelers (second class session)

Objective: Student will design vehicles that incorporate two circles as wheels

Standards: II. Using knowledge of Structures and Functions
B. Use various elements and principles of design to communicate ideas through their artworks
V. Reflecting upon and Assessing the Merits of their Work and the work of Others-
A. Identify various purposes for creating artworks

 

Vocabulary: industrial designers -artists who plan the design of. among other things, cars, trucks, buses, bikes, and many other vehicles.

 

Materials: Overhead of page from Richard Scarry’s vehicle book ( this lesson is also in the old Spectra series and has a slide to use of the vehicle book) circles cut from black Construction Paper (I get a parent volunteer to cut a big stack on the Ellison die-cutter machine- 2 in and 3 in), brads, pictures of vehicles, 12" x 18" (30.5 x 46 cm) Manila Paper, Crayons, AquaMarkers

 

Activity:

Using the slide or overhead, TW lead discussion of vehicles, how there are many sizes for different reasons-delivery trucks, vans, some have writing or pictures on the side, some have different kinds of door, buses have many windows, convertibles have no roof, etc...

 

TW explain what an industrial designer does, ask students if they could design a vehicle what would they include ? brainstorm.

TW show how to put two wheels on a large paper and draw the vehicle around the wheels.

 

SW begin their design , placing their wheels on the page where they need them to be, Teacher circulates to punch in their wheels and attach with the brads.

 

SW cut vehicle out after completing designs

 

Putting it all together - Third session

On this day, all the stragglers catch up. Give them their houses and vehicles and let everyone finish. I have done this 3 ways and you can probably come up with more.

 

If you only choose to make the vehicles - Make a road - use long pieces of black craft paper and draw a road with white crayons (usually I make two roads) let students who have completed their vehicles add the lines down the road, make road signs, and traffic lights, etc. I hot glue the road to the wall and hot glue their vehicles along the road.

 

Second method—use big white craft paper and make a community. I draw the road and let them color the road and the grass, driveways, signs, etc… They put their house and vehicle down on the paper and I glue it on. (some arguments about who is living next door to each other– good discussion time!)

 

Third method-give each child a large piece of paper and let them glue their own house and vehicle and color background etc...