Origami: Math, Science, and Paper Cranes

In Yoko’s Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells (Hyperion, 2009), Yoko, who lives with her parents in the United States, misses Japan, where she remembers feeding the cranes in her grandparents’ garden. She was so unhappy when the cranes left on their seasonal migration that her grandmother taught her how to make paper cranes – to remind her that the cranes would always return. Now, from across the ocean, Yoko sends her grandmother a birthday gift of paper cranes as a token that soon she too will return for a visit to Japan. Illustrated with lovely collages. The characters are all cats (in Yoko’s case, a kitten) who wear gorgeously patterned kimonos. For ages 3-7.

Molly Bangs’s The Paper Crane (Greenwillow Books, 1987) is the story of a restaurant owner and his little son who lose their business when a new highway is built. Nevertheless, they give a free meal to an old man who, in return for their kindness, makes an origami crane from a table napkin – which comes to life at the clap of their hands. People pour into the restaurant to see the magical crane and soon business is booming once more. Finally, the old man returns and – after the crane dances to his flute - he flies away on the crane’s back. For ages 4-8.

In David Small’s Paper John (Live Oak Media, 1998), John makes his living as a peddler, selling paper toys. He lives in a paper house by the sea (a wonderful illustration shows a row of colored pinwheels on the roof) and he folds paper boats for all the town’s children. When an angry imp blows the town out to sea, John, unfazed, folds his paper house into a ship and saves the day. For ages 4-8.

Cathryn Falwell’s Butterflies for Kiri (Lee & Low, 2008) is a good pick for frustrated paper-folding beginners. Kiri is thrilled to get an origami kit for her birthday – but  it doesn’t live up to her expectations; the instructions are difficult, the paper tears, and she gives up in disappointment. Instead, she paints a picture, then returns to the kit to add some paper flowers to her watercolor – and finally succeeds in folding an origami butterfly. The encouraging message, of course, is “Try, try again.” For ages 4-8.

In Barbara Pearl’s picture book Whale of a Tale (Crane Books, 2005), a versatile square of paper turns itself into a kite, a whale, and a penguin. (Instructions are included so that kids can fold along with the story.) For ages 4-8.

In Nathaniel Lachenmeyer’s picture book The Origami Master (Albert Whitman & Company, 2008), Shima the Origami Master lives alone high in the mountains, with only his paper animals to keep him company. A bird who lives in a nearby tree watches him work, and then – while Shima is asleep – flies in the window and makes animals of its own, far better than Shima’s creations. Shima captures the bird and locks it in a cage with some origami paper, hoping to discover its secrets. The captive bird refuses to make anything – and the next morning Shima finds that it has escaped from the cage, leaving behind an origami key. Shima, ashamed, then makes a beautiful origami nest that he leaves in the tree “for the friend he almost lost.” Included are instructions for folding an origami bird. For ages 4-9.

In Kristine O’Connell George’s Fold Me a Poem (Harcourt Children’s Books, 2005), a little boy spends a day folding origami animals, each of which is accompanied by a clever poem and a colorful acrylic illustration. (“All afternoon/the paper cows/have been eyeing/the green paper. Oh!/Grass.”) There are 32 poems in all. A great kick-off for making origami-and-poetry books of your own. For ages 5-9.

Eleanor Coerr’s Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Puffin, 2004) is the story of a young girl who contracted leukemia – “atom bomb disease” - after exposure to radiation in the wake of the World War II Hiroshima bombing. Having heard the legend that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes will have good fortune, Sadako begins to make origami cranes. She dies before achieving her goal, but her classmates complete the project for her – and ever since children worldwide have folded paper cranes in her memory as a symbol of global peace. For ages 8-13.

Ishii Takayuki’s One Thousand Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children’s Peace Statue (Laurel Leaf, 2001) is a 112-page history, illustrated with period photos, on the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath, the experiences of Sadako and her family, Sadako’s death from leukemia, and the establishment of the Hiroshima Peace Park with its Children’s Peace Statue. For ages 10 and up.

Kazuo Kobayashi's Super Simple Origami (Gakken, 2018) has "frustration-free" projects appropriate for ages 6 and up.

John Montroll's Easy Origami (Dover, 1992) has about 30 simply projects for absolute beginners.

Margaret Van Sicklen’s Origami on the Go (Workman, 2009) is a multifaceted book of information and origami projects, intended to occupy, amuse, and educate squirmy kids on trips. There are 40 different folding projects, each paired with a little something extra: instructions for an origami fan are accompanied by an explanation of the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales; a paper stunt plane is paired with an account of the “World’s Biggest Flyby” and pictures (on postage stamps) of the Wright brothers.  Also included are finger puppets, a fortune teller, a jumping frog (made from a business card), and a bowtie (made from a dollar bill). The book is illustrated with color photographs, and comes with 100 sheets of origami paper and two sheets of decorative stickers. For ages 8 and up.

Who can resist these? Brian Castleforte’s Papertoy Glowbots is a collection of 46 different paper robots that light up! For ages 9-18.

Origami Kit for Dummies by Nick Robinson (Wiley, 2008) consists of a 292-page book and a packet of origami paper. The book includes basic instructions, techniques for designing your own origami shapes, step-by-step folding diagrams for 75 projects (from the simple to the challenging), a description of ten different styles of origami, and profiles of “Ten Incredible Folders.”

Jeremy Shafer’s Origami to Astonish and Amuse (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001) is a clever and hilarious guide to action origami, featuring instructions for paper action models for – among others - a working Swiss army knife, a pair of paper nail clippers, a cheeping bird, a darting Frog Tongue. Inevitably, my favorite section of the book is “Origami for the Almost Deranged,” which includes an Unopenable Envelope, a carbon atom, and a car that runs on four legs rather than wheels.

Robert J. Lang’s Origami in Action (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997) has instructions for 39 different action models, with photographs of the finished product, which yours, hopefully, will look like. Among the projects are a flapping bird and fluttering butterfly, a dog that wags its tail, a kicking otter, a blow-up bunny, a fiddling bassist and an Indian paddling a canoe.

Kelsuke Saka’s Karakuri: How to Make Mechanical Paper Models That Move (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2010) combines simple machines (gears, cranks, levers) with paper models. Included are printed pull-out pages for assembles a tea-serving robot, a flapping penguin, and more.

M.C. Escher Kaleidocycles by Doris Schattsschneider and Wallace Walker (Pomegranate, 2005) has 17 ready-to-assemble 3-D models of (gorgeous) paper kaleidocycles and polyhedrons, printed with Escher designs.

Dover Publications is a terrific (and inexpensive) source for  origami paper, kits, and project books for all ages, variously featuring birds, bugs, dinosaurs, sea animals, geometric shapes, airplanes, spaceships, and more.

Brian Sawyer’s Napkin Origami (Sterling/Hollan, 2008) has instructions for folding dinner napkins into 25 different creative shapes, including hearts, rabbits, swans, ships, and ice-cream cones.

Alison Jenkins’s The Lost Art of Towel Origami (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005) has instructions for turning an ordinary bath towel (or towels) into everything from a birthday cake to an elephant.

Michael LaFosse’s Money Origami (Tuttle Publishing, 2009) has 21 origami projects that can be made from a dollar bill (or bills), among them a star, a butterfly, a jumping frog, a wheel of fortune, and an airplane. The book comes with dollar-like practice sheets.

Barbara Pearl’s Math in Motion: Origami in the Classroom (Crane Books, 2008) is a 120-page resource guide for grades K-8, stuffed with approaches and activities for teaching math through origami. Included are basic instructions, lesson plans, and cross-cultural enrichment activities (bake fortune cookies, write haikus, learn to count in Japanese).

From the PBS Independent Lens series, Between the Folds, directed by Vanessa Gould, is a one-hour documentary about modern scientists, artists, and mathematicians using origami in new and incredible ways. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zczAFw76y8Y.

See a fabulous sixth-grade Menger Sponge project using folded paper cubes.

The website of physicist/master origami artist Robert J. Lang has an art gallery, information on uses of origami in math and science, and a publications list. Works include Lang’s famous Black Forest cuckoo clock, a 16-foot Pteranodon, a musician playing the organ, and much more, all mindboggling.

At Engines of Our Ingenuity: Paper Bags, John Lienhard discusses origami, robotics, and the history of the brown paper bag.

Learn about air-powered origami soft robots. See https://www.wired.com/2012/02/paper-robots-air/.

Build Your Own Paper Robots by  Julius Perdana and Josh Buczynski (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009) is a book/CD combo with instructions and templates for building 12 different model robots. For older papercrafters.

See How to make origami robots for younger kids.

Origami DNA is an activity for ages 10 and up in which kids make paper models of the DNA double helix. Printable templates are available at the site.

Buckyball Origami is a video with step-by-step instructions for making an incredible paper buckyball. Learn all about fullerenes – the soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecules nicknamed “buckyballs” – at Buckyball: The Magic Molecule.

From National Geographic see DNA sculpture and origami at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dna-sculpture-and-origami-a-meeting-of-art-and-nanotechnology.

Robert Hanson’s Molecular Origami (University Science Books, 1996) has tear-out-and-assemble models for 124 different molecules, from ozone and water to buckyballs. It’s not origami precisely – there’s a lot of cutting and calls for tape – but it looks like an interesting activity for high-school-level chemistry students.