Origami Trees and Diamonds

It's nice that basic folds in origami are the jumping off point for lots of different projects. Paper Christmas trees and diamonds start the same way as the classic fortune teller. 

You begin with folding a square piece of paper in half to make a vertical rectangle and than open and fold it in half to make a horizontal rectangle. Opening to leave a plus sign in the middle of the square. Flip the paper upside down.

Next you fold it in half in diagonaly to make a triangle, first in one direction, than the other, to make a multiplication sign. 

With the right side up, push in on opposite diagonals until a square (1/4th of the paper size) is formed and push down. Keep the open side pointed towards you on the table. 

Bring the right folded side to the center line, making sure the top stays pointed. Than do it on the left side. Flip to do the right and left side on the back. It should be shaped like a kite.

Slide your finger up from the inside to open up one of the flaps, moving the inner fold to the opposide sides to open it up and make the triangle span the whole width of the kite shape. Do the same thing on each of the 3 remaining flaps. From the top point, the folds should be going in and out and in and out, 8 times, the whole way around. Than you'll make 4 slits on each side. Each tree bough is formed and held into place by folding the upper corner down and in to make a point on the lower outside of the branch. You'll do it 4 times for each of the 8 sides. I tried to always do it on the right half for radial symmetry. These can stand on their own or they can have a ribbon or hook attached and used as an ornament.

Now if you want a diamond shaped ornament you'll need to do this on a second piece of paper with a contrasting color or pattern.

You'll flip one upside down so the opening is going up while the other is going on. You'll tuck each of the long pieces into a short piece of it's partner. It helps to use a drop of glue to keep it from coming undone as you move to the other parts. I like a drop of hot glue or two at the beginning and then maybe one or two at the end of the process. No scissors needed.

paper ornaments

My first Christmas as a new bride, my husband and I had planned on spending the holiday with family in another state, but car troubles that left us stranded, broke, and in search of a tree.  We found one for $15 and I filled it with snowflakes of hardened royal icing. A couple decades later, as a teacher, I find myself still wanting to fill a tree with creativity and time rather than expensive ornaments.
For simple ball ornaments, I cut copy paper in half inch (by 8 1/2 inch) strips. These were folded to find the center and students made "a plus sign" and "a multiplication sign" to glue together in a star shape. One strip of paper was used to make a loop, and then dots of glue on the ends of the remaining strips were used to attach at the top of the loop.  These paper ball ornaments can just be used by themselves, or a couple of white balls can be glued together to make a snow man ornament.

For students who wanted to try something else with the paper strips, I had them stack 8 pieces and staple the center of the stack. (Again, folding to find the center takes almost no time). Then the end of each strip was given a drop of glue to attach to itself, to form a flower petal.

For very low functioning students, I taped a couple of fuzzy craft stems (aka pipe cleaners) to the table by the end, place the other ends in each child's hands and then say, "cross over, switch hands, pull (apart)" over and over again until it was twisted. What takes a few seconds for someone without disabilities can take a long time for a child who needs help crossing their midline.

Students managed to practice some skills and contribute to the school festivities while having fun.