In my relaxing hours of the evening I sometimes like to practice a little paper folding art. As I have mentioned earlier origami has been a hobby since childhood. I have a lot of origami books, none of which have a hippo pattern in them! I recently stumbled upon this website that is origami out of Netflix envelopes, environmentally friendly and exercises your visual-spatial skills! So far I have tried the shirt, frog, and crab.
My students and I have had a running joke about hippos that steams from the Pythagorean Theorem. We also have been working on origami on and off all year long, so last night I got the idea of teaching them how to make an origami hippo. One small problem though, I don't know how to make an origami hippo, nor do I have a pattern - Google to the rescue! I did a little searching, found a few patterns but nothing that I really liked. While in search of the perfect paper hippo I updated my Facebook status to "is wondering how to make an origami hippo, anyone know?" Within moments I had a response complete with links, another few moments and I Mi Prima offer to look at the library for me today. Talk about service! Today I had a few moments so I gave one of the hippos a try, very simple and it might be the one I teach them how to make. With a few changes in the "nose" folding it could become an elephant too!
My desk is cluttered with it. My students are interested in it. It tests my focus and precision. I have been folding origami since I was a child, and am still intrigued by how the piece all comes together in the end. I still find it challenging, and can fold for long periods of time. Lately have I have been folding multi-unit pieces; more than one piece of paper folded the same way multiple times to make a three-dimensional object. I have even branched into making up my own pattern (yup, you can call me an official dork now). The piece still needs some perfecting, but I have the basic idea down. It is fun, focuses my thoughts, and I end up with some great objects for my desk!
