Origami Teaching Resources

Bring easy origami for kids into your classroom to help students improve their focus skills, practice mindfulness, and learn how to make fun origami animals with paper! Explore printable step-by-step instructions that are made just for kids to learn how to fold paper to make bunnies, dogs, footballs, and more!

This collection of teacher printables was created by the expert teacher team at Teach Starter with teachers in mind. That means every resource has been carefully reviewed to ensure it's classroom-ready and student-appropriate.

Curious about how you can add paper-folding to your lesson plans? Read on for some tips from our teacher team!

What Is Origami?

Best known as the Japanese art of paper-folding, origami is an art form that dates back thousands of years. Because of its simplicity — the goal of origami is to fold a piece of paper to create an object without needing to use glue, scissors, or other crafting supply — it's a simple activity to introduce in an elementary classroom and one that offers unique challenges for our students.

How Is Origami Used in Education?

Teaching kids how to make various objects with paper creates instant classroom decor, but let's face it — there are plenty of more important reasons teachers are incorporating origami into education!

Here are a few ways to promote learning with some folded paper:

Math: Introducing geometric concepts such as symmetry or proportion? Origami can help with that!
Science: Whether you're teaching about the properties of materials or more general engineering, there's plenty to be learned from origami.
Art: As we continue with the STEAM subjects, we can't forget that origami is an art form in its own right, and it can be used to introduce students to artistic concepts such as composition, color, and texture.
ELA: Origami can serve as a tool for learning vocabulary words.
Social studies: Origami can be used to teach students about the history, culture, and customs of different countries — notably China where it's thought to originate, and Japan where the art form became popular back in the 17th century.

How Does Origami Help Kids?

There's no question origami is fun for kids — they're learning to make cute animals; what could be more fun? But they're doing so much more than just folding paper!

Builds Fine Motor Skills: Origami involves using the fingers and hands to manipulate paper into intricate shapes and designs which makes it perfect for improving students' dexterity and fine motor skills.
Develops Problem-Solving Skills: Folding paper just right to make a dog or a penguin requires patience, concentration, and the ability to follow step-by-step instructions. When they make a fold wrong, students have to track back to the last correct fold they made in order to get the correct end result. That's crucial in helping kids to think about different ways to solve a problem and to think critically as they perform a task.
Boosts Creativity and Imagination: They may be following instructions, but origami is an art form. In that sense it allows our students to express their creativity as they get better at the craft and begin creating their own unique paper creations.
Improves Hand-Eye Coordination: The act of folding paper requires precise movements which can help our students build their hand-eye coordination.
Promotes a Sense of Accomplishment: There's nothing better than finishing a series of steps and looking at a finished product that looks pretty darn good!