When deciding what to do for my free inquiry project, I ran into some challenges. I had so many big ideas, and I found it hard to narrow down to one. However, through countless conversations with friends and family and going back and forth on various ideas, I finally landed on one that really stuck. I wanted to learn to fold origami.
Why Origami?
I chose to do origami for my free inquiry project because I wanted to choose something that was genuinely new to me. Something I have never tried before. I have always loved hands-on and creative activities, and origami is one that I have never taken the time to learn. It always looked a little bit daunting. I also wanted to take the time to understand how some of the skills it takes to learn and practice origami folding, including patience, fine-motor skills, and following sequenced instructions, can be incorporated into my future classroom.
My Starting Point
I am starting this project at a complete beginner level. I wanted to experience something where I was learning from scratch. My goal throughout this process is to feel the frustration and the excitement and see if I can create something beautiful and learn meaningful skills along the way.
Through my research on this topic, I found a resource I will be using along my journey to help. This site offers many patterns and indicates the difficulty level and amount of time it might take. It has diagrams, videos, and breaks down each step, which is extremely helpful as a beginner. It even offers helpful folding tips along the way.
My Plan and Goals
My plan for this project is to start by gathering my supplies and researching the proper paper to use for origami folding. Here is a YouTube video that very clearly lays out many different folds I think will be helpful for this stage:
I then plan on familiarizing myself with the origami basics and understanding the different folds that are common in origami projects. Once I am well-equipped with my knowledge of the basics, I will move into creating my first project. I plan to start with projects in the “very easy” and “easy” categories. Projects in this category that I want to attempt, depending on time and progress, include:
- Star
- Cube
- Swan
- Crane
- Jumping Frog
From there, how I proceed depends on the progress in these categories. My goal for my final content post is to feel confident enough in my abilities to attempt one of the intermediate designs. However, that may be overzealous.
I am looking forward to this journey and learning a new technique that I can bring throughout my life with me!
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