The Internet holds a wealth of information, including paper-folding instructions. Use these steps to encourage your students to create animals with paper coinciding with a science unit on classification, habitats or marine life. Tammy Yee has developed some amazing Origami activities for children that, when printed, have an animal on them. Students can create a sea otter, butterfly or whale with Tammy Yee's creations. To challenge the students a bit more, instruct each to fold a paper crane with only step-by-step instructions (see Resources).
Reinforce the concept of fractions with a paper-folding activity. As an activity example: Fold two circles into 32 parts and 16 parts respectively, and allow the students to use the visual manipulatives to add sections of the 32 and 16 parts together from each of the circles. Practice reducing the fraction denominators by drawing lines over the pertinent folds and smoothing the rest. Include an art activity by decorating the circles as pie or pizza.
When studying the history of ships and boats such as the Titanic, battle vessels or the Mayflower, construct boats by folding a piece of paper. Integrate science into your history lesson through experimentation. Each student folds a paper boat and tests its buoyancy. Chart the results from the paper boat experiment by timing each boat's ability to stay afloat. Attempt to fold the boat with different types of paper to test which type is the most effective.
Students in the fourth-grade class can create their own literary works with paper folding. Create storybooks, lift-the-flap joke books or accordion books with a sheet of paper and an idea. Encourage the students to use proper grammar and punctuation. Combine efforts with a younger class by instructing the fourth-graders to write a children's book and read it to a kindergarten buddy. Be sure to have each student illustrate their book on each folded paper page.