11th November Origami Day

Origami Day was first observed in Japan. It honours the ancient art of creating objects from square pieces of paper.

The origami crane is one of the most recognized origami models around the world.

©bigstockphoto.com/Remains

Origami, which comes from the Japanese words, ori meaning folding, and kami meaning paper, originated in Japan in the 6 century, though for a long period of time the art was preserved for religious ceremonies. By the 17th century, origami had become mainstream in Japanese society and was being used for decorative and ceremonial purposes.

Amazing objects have been made that are indeed works of art, but at school we will be celebrating by making much simpler animals and having the children who are adept at origami teach their peers. When they have made a recognisable animal there is such a sense of achievement. 

We have a large number of books in the craft section of the library which give students ideas about what is possible, but we also have books where origami is central to the story or poetry in the book. Of course we have Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes  in picture book format but there are other picture books as well. See these:

• Newspaper Boy and Origami Girl  and The Little Bookshop and the Origami Army by Michael Foreman

• Origami Heart by Binny

• The Origami Master  by  Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

• Wild Weather  by Thomas Kingsley Troupe (this is one book in a series called Origami Science Adventures)

• Fold Me a Poem by Kristine O'Connell George and Lauren Stringer

• The Paper Crane by Molly Bang
• Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells 
• Little Oh by Laura Krauss Melmed
• Tree of Cranes by Allen Say (just perfect for the run-up to Christmas)
• Peace Crane by Sheila Hamanaka
• More-igami by Dori Kieber
• Butterflies for Kiri by Cathryn Falwell
• Float  by Daniel Miyares
• The Fog by Kyo Maclear and Kennard Pak
• Mole and the Newspaper by Laurence Bourguignon

and

• Origami, Poems and Pictures  by The British Museum would make a wonderful present as it comes with the paper and it becomes a family reading, viewing and doing activity.