Origami Flower Bouquet

What You Need:

• Colorful, lightweight paper —such as colored typing paper
• Green pipe cleaner
• Scissors
• Ruler

What You Do:

1. Start by helping your child measure and cut a 4" x 4" square from the paper. Not only is she honing her cutting skills, but fine-tuning her measuring abilities, too!
2. Now she can fold the paper diagonally in half, turning her square into a long-edged triangle, with the fold facing toward her.
3. To create the petals of her tulip, she can carefully fold the right-edge corner up and to the right of the center point.
4. Now encourage her to do the same with the other side of her triangle, also finishing just to the left of the center point.
5. Next, invite your child to flip her flower over and fold over the side edges of the flower, creating a finished tulip! She can gently open the flower by pressing her finger into the center of the flower.
6. To attach her stem, she can use the scissors to snip the bottom of the tulip and then carefully thread the hole with a green pipe cleaner, bending the end so it stays in place.

Did you know? It’s thought that origami originated as early as 105 A.D. in Asian culture and that Origami art would accompany a valued gift. The small folded papers represented good fortune, sincerity, or purity!