Origami n' Stuff 4 Kids

Origami Folding Tips

Origami, from the Japanese ori (to fold) and kami (paper), began in the 6th century when Buddhist monks introduced paper to Japan. The print-and-fold crafts and easy diagrams are designed to help children with fine motor skills, directions and hand eye coordination. Some basic origami folding tips:

Print and cut out patterns carefully.
Fold with clean, dry hands.
Follow the instructions. Study the diagrams and be patient.
Be precise: fold each crease well, flattening the creases by running your fingertip over the fold.
Folding the paper away from you is easier than folding towards you.
Be creative...use your origami on greeting cards, holiday decorations, table place cards and bookmarks.

Happy New Year! Origami Dragon Puppet

Print and fold an Origami Dragon Puppet for Chinese New Year!

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Directions:

1a. Print Dragon Puppet.
1b. Cut out strips of dragon's body along outer solid line.
Cut out dragon's head and tail along outer solid line. Be sure to snip near head and tail "puppet handles" as indicated with arrows.

2. Use tape or glue to secure areas labeled "A" on dragon body strips as shown. Your strips should be perpendicular (at a right angle).

3a & b. Fold "tail" strip backward as shown.
3c. Fold "head" strip back and up as shown.
3d. Your dragon body should appear as shown.

5a. Fold dragon's head back along center line.
5b,c &d. Fold puppet handle as shown and secure with tape or glue.

6a. Fold dragon's tail back along center line.
6b,c &d. Fold puppet handle as shown and secure with tape or glue.

7. Glue or tape dragon's head and tail to body. Your dragon puppet is pau (finished)!

Dragon Fortune Teller

What does the New Year have in store for you? Here's an Origami Dragon Fortune Teller to help you out.

Difficulty: Easy

Directions:

1. Print your Dragon Fortune Teller. Cut out image along outer solid lines.

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

3. Unfold, then fold in half along horizontal line.

4. Unfold, turn over so that printed side faces down. Fold each corner over to center, as illustrated.

5. Turn your folded origami over, with the "fortune" text side facing up. Fold each corner over to center, as illustrated.

6. Crease in half along horizontal, then vertical lines.

7. Turn over so that the dragon printed side is facing up. Carefully "open" each corner as illustrated. Your fingers should be able to fit into the pockets formed, so that you can manipulate your Dragon Fortuneteller like a puppet.

8. Turn your dragon over and you're pau (done)!

How to Play the Fortuneteller Game:

1. Place your fingers into the pockets (index and thumb of both hands) so that you can move the Dragon's mouth, like a puppet, in and out.

2. Have a person choose one of the four colors, Red, Blue, Green or Purple. Moving the fortuneteller in and out, spell out the chosen color.

3. Have the person choose one of the numbers showing. Count out the chosen number while moving the fortuneteller in and out.

4. Again, have the person choose on of the numbers showing. Lift the flap and read the fortune under the chosen number.

5. If you need help with the directions, ask mom or dad...they will probably remember how to play the game!

NOVEMBER 12, Veterans Day

World War I (also known as the Great War, War of Wars, and the War to End All Wars) began in the summer of 1914, and over the course of four years embroiled all of the world's great powers, mobilizing 70 million combatants and resulting in more than 9 million (military) deaths. The political, economic and personal toll was unprecedented. By the end of the war four major empires (German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman) were defeated and dismantled, and political boundaries across the world were redrawn.

Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners

President Woodrow Wilson

Although the war officially ended on June 28, 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, actual combat had "ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of 'the war to end all wars.'"

President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed November 11 as Armistice Day, an observance in honor of those who served and died valiantly for our country, but it wasn't until May 13, 1938 that congress officially declared the day a national holiday dedicated to peace and the service of our veterans.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

On October 8, 1938 President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally issued the first "Veterans Day Proclamation:

"In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. Toward this end, I am designating the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs as Chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other persons as the Chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary planning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the Government to assist the National Committee in every way possible."

The Veterans Day ceremony at Elmwood Cemetery honors members of the 102nd U.S. Colored Infantry. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DETROIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Veterans Day Activities:

Print and Color the U.S. Flag
Print and Fold an Independence Eagle Paper Airplane
Print and Fold an Uncle Sam Origami

Paper Planes: Independence Eagle

Print and fold an easy Origami Paper Plane Eagle for Independence Day, Memorial Day or Veterans Day!

The Bald Eagle, with majestic wings spread in flight, stars and stripes across his breast, an olive branch in his right talon and a bundle of thirteen arrows in his left,graces the Great Seal of the United States of America. E pluribus unum, Latin for "Out of Many, One," is inscribed on a scroll carried within his beak.

Chosen as our National Emblem on June 20, 1782, the bald eagle's grace, strength, majesty and freedom as it soars above mountains and sweeping valleys has come to symbolize the ideals of our founding fathers.

Difficulty: Easy

Directions:
1. Print and cut out origami Independence Day Eagle. Fold back along A.

2. With printed side down, fold along C and D.

3. Fold tip along E.

4. Fold in half along B.

5. Note that there are two vertical lines along the body, to either side of the center fold. Fold these down to open up the eagle's wings, as shown in the final sample.

6. Tape or staple body as shown. Fold wing flaps up as shown...these can be adjusted as you test your paper airplane Independence Day Eagle.

Goth Pokemon!

Cool Pokemon revisions by artist Vaughn Pinpin

Vaughn Pinpin, an artist, illustrator, and designer currently studying at The UP College of Fine Arts, has created a series of gothic Pokemon that evoke Tim Burton.

View more at http://hatboy.tumblr.com/.

Art prints available at: http://society6.com/hatboy/Pocket-Monster-025_Print

Owl Mask (Pueo)

Pueo (Hawaiian Short-eared Owl)
Scientific name: Asio flammeus sandwichensis

What is it about owls that inspires so many myths and legends? Owls are a symbol of wisdom; their watchful eyes penetrate the darkness, seeing all. Flying by night, they are guides, messengers and navigators of the supernatural. The Romans saw owls as omens of death, while the Greeks saw owls as a sign of victory in battle. To the Hawaiians, the pueo, or Hawaiian Short-eared Owl, was worshiped as a god or a guardian spirit.

The Hawaiian Short-eared Owl is the only native owl in Hawai'i (the common barn owl was introduced in the 1950's as rodent control). Most active at dawn and at dusk (and sometimes, at mid-day), Pueo have large eyes that allow them to hunt in dim light. In fact, the eyes of owls are so large, relative to their heads, that they can't look from side to side; that's why owls have such flexible necks.

Soft, specialized feathers help the pueo to hunt in silence. Besides rodents, pueo also eat insects and rarely, birds in open, grassy fields and dry forests.

2003 Ka Palapala Po'okela Award Winner, Excellence in Children's Books

Lullaby Moon
Written by Elaine Masters
Illustrated by Tammy Yee
Music by Malia Elliot
Island Heritage Publishing, 2002

A dreamy adventure about Koa, a little Hawaiian boy who would rather play outside than fall asleep. Koa soon finds himself befriended by an owl, or Pueo, who takes him on a magical exploration of the island's wildlife. Under the watchful gaze of Lullaby Moon, Koa learns how bats, bees and green sea turtles spend their night.

Featuring boldly illustrated lift-a-flaps and a CD by Malia Elliot, of the popular performing and songwriting duo, Leon & Malia.

Hawaiian Honeycreeper Mask (I'iwi)

'I'iwi (Hawaiian Honeycreeper)
Scientific name: Vestiaria coccinea

What's that squeaky song? Peering through tree ferns, you spy a red bird high in the rainforest canopy. It hops from branch to branch, dipping its long curved beak into the flowers for a sip of nectar. After it has visited every lehua blossom, it flies off in search of more nectar.

The scarlet 'i'iwi (ee-EE-vee) is one of the most beautiful birds in Hawai'i. It uses its long, sickle-shaped beak to probe for nectar in native lobeliad flowers and 'ohi'a blossoms. It also feeds on insects and larvae.

'I'iwi usually breed from February to September. Clutches of one to three whitish eggs with dark brown markings are laid in cup-shaped nests. The eggs hatch after 14 days. The newly hatched chicks have bright orange skin, with patches of soft down on their head and wings. After three weeks, the fledglings grow speckled yellow-green feathers and can fly with ease! The red adult plummage will gradually appear first on the breast, then head.

The 'i'iwi was valued by Hawaiians for its orange-red feathers, which were used to make feather capes, helmets and other symbols of Hawaiian royalty. Bird catchers would venture into the forest, looking for trees with blossoms to attract hungry 'i'iwi. Sticky sap was smeared on the branches of select trees. Sometimes the bird catcher would imitate a bird's song, or recite a special chant to lure more birds. An 'i'iwi that landed on the sap would be held fast in the sticky trap!

Although 'i'iwi are still fairly common on most of the islands, it is rare on O'ahu and Moloka'i and no longer found on Lana'i. Most of the decline is blamed on loss of habitat, as native forests are cleared for farming, grazing, and development. Another threat has been the spread of avian malaria.

ARIZONA, the Grand Canyon State

Color the Arizona State Flag:

Admission: 48th State (February 14, 1912)
Capital: Phoenix

Nickname: The Grand Canyon State

State Motto: Ditat Deus (God enriches)
State Song: Arizona March Song, lyrics by Margaret Rowe Clifford, music by Maurice Blumenthal

State Amphibian: Arizona Tree Frog
State Bird: Coues' Cactus Wren
State Butterfly: Two-tailed Swallowtail
State Fish: Arizona Trout
State Flower: Saguaro Cactus Blossom
State Gem: Turquoise
State Mammal: Ringtail
State Reptile: Arizona Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake
State Tree: Blue Palo Verde

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