Unit origami was a favorite! we folded faces, edges and vertices. Many tasks had accompanying worksheets about area and volume. Example (on a multi-colored polyhedron): What % of the exterior surface is blue? And what % of the total surface of the blue paper used shows? The students usually worked in small groups on these projects.
Enthusiam for folding was soaring and soon I wanted to justify folding birds and animals, etc. And so I became a more resourceful teacher as I worked to tie these into math. A certain amount of origami was done as a reward for successfully mastering specified objectives, a few special projects like flowers for Mom on Mother's Day, and some extra credit projects to see if a student could follow directions on his/her own.
According to a survey given at the close of the year, students listed the following things they had learned/experienced through my "mathagami- projects. Patience, precision, "don't give up-, creativity, geometric concepts, and that math class is fun. (Math IGAP scores went up too!).
I also got some parent feedback: My office is filled with my child's folded items; thanks for the flowers and remembering us on Mother's Day - what a nice idea; long trips in the car are much easier now - I just get the kids some origami paper before we start. And from the parents of a hyperactive boy: my son will fold for hours, this is the first activity he's ever done for than a few minutes. And from several parents of the learning disabled: my child experiences success in your class. Thank you.
From my own perspective, I feel that it made me a more creative teacher and produced a special bond between us. Many kids expressed appreciation that I shared my enthusiasm for origami by teaching it to them. Former students still come past and say, "Miss Bass, look what I folded today!-.
Where's the math in origami?.
Origami may not seem like it involves very much mathematics.
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