Origami n' Stuff 4 Kids

Welcoming 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

How did you celebrate the New Year? See all 38 photos of celebrations around the world at: Welcoming 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Russia: New Year on Red Square in Moscow, with the Kremlin in the background, right, and St. Basil's cathedral in background. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

Spain: San Fermin Festival bull runners celebrate the New Year in Coin, near the southern Spanish town of Malaga. (REUTERS/Jon Nazca)

China: Releasing a wishing lantern to usher in the new year in Chengdu in southwestern China's Sichuan province. (AP Photo)

More New Year photos from around the world at: Welcoming 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Sea Otter Awareness!

Fold an Origami Sea Otter to commemorate Sea Otter Awareness Week!

How much do you know about those lovable, fur-faced acrobats twisting and diving in kelp beds?

Sea otters are one of the few mammals, aside from primates (monkeys and apes), to use tools. Floating on the surface of the water, they sometimes place a rock on their chest, using it as a hard surface to smash open shelled food like clams and abalone. Have you ever wondered how otters carry all that stuff to the surface? In their armpits, in loose skin folds! Try that with an urchin--better yet, don't try it.

These resourceful animals even use kelp as an anchor, wrapping themselves in the long fronds to keep from floating away while they rest. Kelp also makes a great babysitter. Mom leashes her pup in kelp, letting it bob on the surface as she hunts for food, never having to worry about paying the sitter.

This year will mark the 7th annual Sea Otter Awareness Week. All across the United States, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, aquariums are sponsoring events to teach the public about these endangered creatures.

For more information about otters and a list of events, visit the Defenders of Wildlife website, http://www.defenders.org.

Sea otter facts you "otter" know:

Size
Sea otters are the largest member of the weasel family, but the smallest of all marine mammal. Males grow as large as 5 feet while the average length of adult females is 4 feet. Full grown otters weigh as much as an average 9 to 10 year old child. Baby otters weigh only 5 lbs at birth!
In the wild they live up to 10 to 12 years of age; however, they can live as long as 25 years.
Because they have no blubber, sea otters keep warm with their dense fur. They have the thickest, finest fur of any mammal, with up to 1 million hairs per square inch, and they need to keep clean to stay warm. This is why otters are so vulnerable to oil spills.
Sea otters' webbed hind paws are ideal for a life spent almost entirely in the water.
A Big Appetite.
Otters need to eat 25 to 30 percent of their weight every day just to stay warm. A 100 lb person would have to eat 100 quarter-pound burgers a day to keep up! Their diet consists mainly of clams, urchins, mussels, crabs and fish.
Sea otters are social critters. They meet and play in groups of less than 10, to more than 100, called rafts. The moms and pups stay together in one group, separate from the males.
Although moms usually give birth to one pup at a time, they sometimes give birth to twins. Unfortunately, only one pup will survive.

Computer Art for a Children's Book

Here's the finished work, from a book I wrote and illustrated, Whales' Tails and Turtle Trails:

Creating a computerized children's book illustration of an albatross

One of the characters in a book I wrote and illustrated, "Whales' Tails and Turtle Trails" features a Laysan Albatross (Moli, or Phoebastria immutabilis). These magnificent seabirds have an 80 inch wingspan, and breed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Photo by Robert Schwemmer

1. Creating feathers using a general leaf template.

2. Next, grouping feathers together.

3. Now it's time to create a framework on which to paste my feathers.

4. Finally, colorizing the feather patterns completes the albatross.

5. Now that I've established the distinctive markings of the albatross, it's time to stylize the bird so that it's more appealing to children. I've enlarged the eyes and the beak, and have added a lei:

Ed Rondthaler: The nonsense of english spelling

Origami: Goldfish

Difficulty: Easy

Directions:

1. Print and cut out Origami Fish along outer solid lines.

2. With printed side facing up, fold vertically in half along center line.

3. Unfold and turn over, so that the printed side is facing down.
4. Fold diagonally as shown.
5. Repeat diagonal fold on the other side.

6. Your Fish Origami should be creased as illustrated.

7. Turn your paper over. With printed side down, fold along creases, forming a "tent" as illustrated.

8. Fold the dorsal (top) fin back, then up along solid lines.
Repeat with ventral (bottom) fin.

9. Turn your fish over. Fold top tail fin down, then up along solid lines as shown.
Repeat with bottom tail fin.

10. Turn your fish over and you're pau (done)!

Origami Swallowtail Butterfly

Difficulty: Easy

Directions:

1. Print and cut out origami swallowtail butterfly.

For the next few steps, follow instructions to Monarch Butterfly Origami:
2a. With printed side facing down,
2b. Fold in half diagonally along B.
2c. Unfold and repeat the diagonal fold along C.

3a. With printed side facing up,
3b. Fold in half horizontally along A.
3c. Unfold. Your origami should be creased as illustrated.

4. Carefully fold along creases, forming a "tent" as illustrated.

5a. Fold the right "tent" corner up along D, as illustrated.
5b. Fold the left "tent" corner up along E, as illustrated.

6. Your Origami Swallowtail Butterfly should look like this:

7. Turn butterfly origami over, printed side down.

8a. Fold up along F. Note that corners will pull in to either side.
8b. Crease corners flat, as indicated by arrows.

9. Turn your origami butterfly over.

10a. Fold butterfly in half vertically, so wings are together.
10b. Crease one wing down, diagonally, to form body.
10b. Fold down the other wing, diagonally, as shown.