A little Easter Oragami

So, I don't really do alot of oragami in the classroom, but I have used this lesson with 5th grade before when our park was full of wildflowers.  It is really just a simple box but you can make it into a flower basket, nesting boxes, or gift boxes. I have alot of old Christmas cards and make these boxes for advent treats or tiny gift boxes. The large greeting cards work best. You can do this with any paper we just use greeting cards to upcycle, but you could use scrapbook paper, construction paper or whatever.

1. pick a nice, large, colorful greeting card

2. fold the top down and align with the edge

                                          3. cut of the bottom to make a perfect square

                                           4. fold all corners down to center

                                          5. pick two corners and fold them in until they touch

 6. fold the edge of the same pieces you just folded, until they line up and touch each other in the middle

7. open up the folds youjust made in #6 and draw a line along those folds

8. cut along all four lines

9. Fold the flaps you just cut straight down

so they look like this

 10. then fold those two little sections up to make the sides

 11. lift the little wing looking pieces up and over the edges

 12. do this with both sides, tucking them inside the box to secure the sides and then place a small piece of tape inside to hold it together. You can repeat these steps to make a lid for the box or make it into a tiny Easter basket by adding a strip of paper to the corners with tape

My girls love picking flowers out of my front yard flower beds. This tiny basket was a great idea for allowing their inner florist to take over while at the same time not depleting mass quantities of my Spring pageantry of   color!! They spent SO much time delicately making their flower filled Easter baskets!!

 Before long, they had made baskets for every baby doll, stuffed bunny, and even one for the turtle. I of course had the privilege to fold all of them, but it gets really easy after the first one.

HaPpY EaStEr EvErYoNe!