Tag Archives: origami

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Magazine Ornament Makerspace

Our open makerspace is taking a short break while our student book budget team works on new books for the library. We wrapped up our final makerspace session by hosting an ornament makerspace. Students signed up for this time with their teachers via a Google doc.

I have lots of old magazines that used to be in circulation but aren’t used anymore. I decided to pull them out and use them for our ornament materials as a way to promote reusing materials rather than throwing them out or putting them in recycling.

I wanted students to have a mixture of structure and freedom, so I selected 3 options for structured ornaments with a 4th option of designing your own.

Instructions for these 3 ornaments are found below.

Ornament 1 (top center):

  1. Cut 2 pages from a magazine and fan fold each page.
  2. Stack the 2 fan folds on top of one another and tie in the middle.
  3. If you want, trim the ends of the fan into a fancy design with craft scissors or regular scissors.
  4. Fan out each side and connect together to make a circle. Staple if low on time. Glue if you have time for drying.
  5. Use a hole punch to make a hole and tie a string.

Ornament 2 (bottom left):

  1. Cut multiple strips of the same length from a magazine page.
  2. Bring the ends of each strip together to form a loop.
  3. Repeat the process of bringing ends of strips together and begin adding the loops together.
  4. You might want to use a gem clip to hold the loops together if you have trouble holding them in your hand and folding paper at the same time.
  5. Staple the loops together at the top.
  6. Use a hole punch to create a hole and tie a string. (If you have added a lot of strips, it may be difficult to punch a hole)

Ornament 3 (bottom right):

  1. Cut 5 strips from a magazine page. 2 long, 2 medium, 1 short.
  2. Arrange the strips in this order: long, medium, short, medium, long.
  3. At one end of your stack, make sure the ends of the strips are even and staple them together.
  4. Starting in the center with the short strip, connect the two medium strips to the top of the short strip.
  5. Next, connect the two long strips to the short strip. Staple together.
  6. Use a hole punch to create a hole and tie a string.

When students came to the makerspace session, I quickly showed them the 3 options which were all at their own table.  Then, I showed them a 4th table where they could design their own. Since a UGA class collaborates with us in makerspace, there was a UGA student at each table to assist students as needed with the directions. I also had a UGA student help with hole punching and string tying.

Students were welcome to make as many ornaments as they wanted. They could take them all with them, but they were also welcome to add them to our holiday area of the library. At the front of the library, I have pulled out all of our November/December holiday books and created displays to highlight those holidays such as Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Year.

As with every makerspace time, I loved seeing how students took structured ideas and put their own creative spins on them. I also loved seeing what unique ideas students came up with on their own too. It’s always hard to decide how to balance structure with open-ended projects, but I think it’s important to offer both. We all learn in different ways. I’ve seen that some learners have high anxiety when given no structure and others have high anxiety when they have structure and think that their creation has to look exactly like the picture.

Several students did decide to add at least one of their creations to our tree in the library. It’s one more way that we can share ownership of our library.

 

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Star Wars Day: May the Fourth Be With You

I’ve wanted to hold a Star Wars Day in the library for a long time, but it seems like every year something comes up that prevents me from doing it. However, this year, I put it on the library calendar early and crossed my fingers. By the time May 4th arrived, I had protected five 45-minute slots on the library calendar to host classes.

The signup was open to any classes. Three 5th grade classes, one Kindergarten, and one 2nd grade class signed up. We opened each session with Star Wars music and a reading of Chewie and the Porgs by Kevin Shinick. As students were seated, they selected one of four cards: porgs, jedi, storm troopers, and wookies. This sorted them into 4 groups to move into centers.

I knew our time would disappear quickly, so I wanted helpers at each rotation. I made a signup genius to send out to families, but I also invited 4th and 5th grade students to sign up.

Origami Yoda

This station was inspired by the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger.  Students saw the book series and then followed either a Youtube video (more difficulty) or printed visual instructions (easier) to create their own origami Yoda. The finishing touch was using black marker to add eyes, mouth, and any other details.

For the Kindergarten class, this station adjusted to making a Yoda headband since their fine motor skills aren’t as great for creating origami. They traced Yoda ears on green paper and added them to paper headbands.

Star Wars Name

This station was combined with origami. Students used a formula to create a new name for themselves. For the first name, they used the first 3 letters of their last name combined with the first 2 letters of their last name.  For the last name, they used the first 2 letters of someone’s last name and the first 3 letters of city where they were born. This name was written onto a “hello my name is…” tag and taped on their shirt. I loved to watch the concentration it took to figure out the correct letters and then the laughs as people tried to read one another’s name. It was a great lesson in spelling and phonics.

 

Tiny Light Sabers

This station was a hit. We used finger lights that I purchased on Amazon and put straws over the LED light. Students cut the straws to the length they wanted and used washi tape and feathers to jazz them up. We loved watching the tiny light saber battles that ensued. I put book at this station that featured light saber duels on the cover.

Chewbacca Puppets

Students used brown paper lunch bags with white & black construction paper to create a Chewie puppet. I didn’t use stencils for this station. I simply made an example and let them cut out teeth, eyes, and a nose in their own style. We did offer the Kindergarten class a few pre-cut objects to choose from.

Star Wars Doodles

At this station, students finished partial Star Wars drawings by adding their own creative details and coloring. I loved the impromptu storytelling that happened as students created their scenes.

Next year, I want to think about how I can expand this opportunity to more classes. I also want to think about more stations that connect with various areas of the curriculum. Each of these stations connected with a book, writing, or storytelling, but I would love to weave in some space science and some math. I’ll think on that, but overall, I loved seeing the enthusiasm of students especially in the Kindergarten and 2nd grade classes.

May the Fourth be with you!