Origami

Rebecca Van Duker, Janna Shigley, Chelsea Van de Brooke, Julia Kemp, Rachel Potts, Will Hoffman
Subject: Art / History / Math

Grade Level: Third

Date: 3/4/14

Time: 1 hour

Standards:
3.SL.2 Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and
formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
AR.03.HC.01 Identify an event or condition that influenced a work of art.
AR.03.HC.02 Identify social, historical and cultural characteristics in a work of art.
3.MP.3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
3.MP.4 Model with mathematics.
3.1. Describe how significant people, events and developments have shaped their own community and region.
3.4. Describe local communities and regions past and present.
G.3.B Determine and prove triangle congruence, triangle similarity, and other properties of triangles.
G.3.A Know, explain, and apply basic postulates and theorems about triangles and the special lines, line segments, and rays
associated with a triangle.
Assessment:
- Teacher observation of whole class discussion about the book and sharing of past experience with Origami

Students construct a working jumping frog origami

Students complete questionnaire about the geometric aspects of origami

Students charts of jumping frogs five feet and class data of mean, median and mode
Pre-Lesson/Material Details:
Before teaching the lesson the teacher must gather supplies, learn to fold origami and have a deep enough understanding to lead
the class through the steps. The teacher must also prepare resources such as the video and powerpoint.
Focus and Purpose:
The purpose of this lesson is to have students make connections between art forms and culture. Students will learn some history
of Origami and the paper folding different traditions in different cultures. Students will also learn a bit about Hiroshima from the
book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Students will get the opportunity to construct jumping origami frogs and use them
to complete a math activity focusing on mean, median and mode as well as how to model geometry using origami. Students will
identify how the folds they are making model reflection and congruent triangles.

Objectives:
1. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of mean, median, and mode operations by calculating each after completing an
activity in small groups using their origami folded frogs.
2.Students will be able to compare and contrast the different styles of origami amongst multiple cultures using a visual aide.
3. Students will be able to define the term origami in their own words verbally to a partner.
4. Students will be able to create origami using procedural instructions demonstrated in class.
5. Students will be able to explain on a worksheet aspects of origami history, including where it originated and how the art form
has progressed over time, after a class presentation and discussion.

Materials
- Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
- Origami or folding paper
- Instructions or demonstration
- Video about paper making
- Measuring stick
- Paper
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Tape

Open - 15 MINUTES
1. Teacher begins with a read aloud of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. - Chelsea (1 minute excerpt)
2. The class briefly discusses the history of Hiroshima. - Chelsea (Chelsea explains what sort of discussion questions
would be presented 1 minute).
Body - 30 MINUTES
1. The teacher introduces the history, meaning and tradition of Origami and asks if anyone has experience with making
Origami and what they have made. - Janna and Rachel (4 minutes)
2. The teacher discusses paper folding around the world, the variations and traditions - Julia (3 minutes)
3. The teacher discusses the special paper used in Origami and the invention of paper - Becky (1 minutes)
4. The students watch a video about origami paper making and origami experts. (2 minutes)
5. The teacher shows class how to make hopping frogs and discuss the geometry in origami. - Will (5 minutes)
6. In small groups students jump their frogs 3 feet counting how many jumps it takes to jump the distance and keeping
a chart of their data. - Becky will explain (1 minute)
Close - 5 MINUTES
9. The class finds the mean, median and mode of how many jumps it takes to get the frogs 3 feet.

Frog origami
Steps for Procedure:
Easy Jumping Frog Step 1: Get an 3x5 index card that is shaped like a rectangle.
Easy Jumping Frog Step 2: Then get the top corner and fold it to make a triangle.
Easy Jumping Frog Step 3: Do the same to the other side and then fold it from the middle.
Easy Jumping Frog Step 4: Push the 2 corners on each edge and make a double triangle.
Easy Jumping Frog Step 5: Fold one edge of the triangle to the top of the triangle.
Easy Jumping Frog Step 6: Do the same with the other edge and then fold the flap to the
middle.
Easy Jumping Frog Step 7: And do the same to the other side and then fold it in half.
Easy Jumping Frog Step 8: Flip it around and fold the bottom flap in half.
Frog Origami Questionnaire
1. What type of triangle do we see? Describe how you know this using properties of
triangles and congruence.
a.

In the first fold?

b.

In the second fold?

c.

The third fold?

d.

The fourth?

e.

The fifth?

2. On a separate sheet of paper, formally prove that your fold of choice produces triangles.

3. What other fun activities or real life situations could you apply types of triangles to?