Here be dragons soon! Some REALLY awesome dragons, when we get our hands on some bright scaly colors!
In my school the kids are crazy about origami. While it is wonderful to see children having a good time with the challenge, it is especially rewarding to see some kids who struggle with their academic subjects sailing through these spatial challenges. They feel so empowered when they realize they have the ability to take a square piece of white paper and turn it into a piano, a penguin or a waterbomb! Many of my students are not well off, so the ability to turn plain paper chaff into the gold of origami enchants them. I have had to collect grocery bags from all the parents so the kids can haul their loot from the art room when they get carried away.
My sneaky teacher plot is to, starting in early grades, build origami lessons into the geometry concepts and vocabulary that they need in their classroom. (It is fascinating to see little ones perplexed that a rectangle won't fold on the diagonal and create a tidy triangle. For some, it is the first time the really "see" a difference between a square and a rectangle.)
By the time the kids are in 5th, I'd like to be able to let them enjoy making some really cool complex looking models, like the dragon in bright colors. Crayon on white copier paper simply lacks the glitz factor of a super neon paper. Even lumpy dragons look snazzy in neon paper! There is no way I can afford even pastel colored paper the way budgets are going in my town. We're lucky to have enough white copy paper for me to cut into squares to stretch for the year!
Ten reams of neon paper would last me two school years if I save it for the special projects with the older grades. Having the potential for a great looking finished origami model, gives children who are struggling that extra ability to persevere. Bright colors also set off modular origami from which we build the Platonic solids.
Please help make Isosceles the Dragon roar with delight at his glowing neon scales this year in art class.
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