Creating Paper Flowers

Although many are familiar with origami folding, this may be slightly difficult for younger ages. These instructions should allow students from grades 3 to 5 the tools and knowledge to learn how to fold paper flowers themselves in a less complicated but still creative way in their classroom. As they become more familiar with the beginning instructions given below, they will be able to deviate more and innovate the designs to become uniquely their own.

Objectives:

- Students will learn how to apply STEL practices, standards, and contexts, and the creative design process to a hands-on project

- Students will learn how to create paper flowers with basic classroom materials

Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy (STEL) Applications:

While this project is simple, this does not mean it refrains from addressing the standards, practices, and contexts that help a student excel in their educational journey. Listed below are those standards, practices, and contexts that this project applies for students.

Standards:

Core Concepts of Technology and Engineering - Completing this project helps to explain to young students how parts that are seemingly unrelated can be used to create a whole product given specific criteria and constraints.

Design in Technology and Engineering Education - This is an artistically based project and will assist in any child's creative process and nature. Understanding the creative and design processes better in this project will help them apply that to other sorts of assignments.

Practices:

Creativity - As previously stated, this project is one that is considered by most to be an art project, but this creative process that they will be asked to use can be applied to all sorts of future assignments and assessments.

Making and Doing - This is a hands-on process that is used to show that creativity can result in the creation of new physical products. Students will not only learn that such a thing is possible but will learn how to move through the process themselves.

Contexts:

Material Conversion and Processing - Being given a set of materials and working to create something entirely new from them is a great lesson in this context and what it means to process materials to achieve a particular goal.

To complete this project, students are each going to need a set of supplies (listed below). These can vary in type (i.e. getting glue sticks instead of glue bottles, etc.), but they will all be necessary in some capacity to create the final product of the paper flower(s). More will be needed the more flowers they complete. Each supply piece is one that children are often already familiar with within their own classrooms and homes and can be purchased if necessary at any craft or supply store for minimal cost (about $10 per student with basic supplies).

Supplies

1. Standard size construction paper (of whatever color)

2. Scissors

3. Glue

4. Pencil or pen

Step 1: Cutting the Petals

Each student should take their first sheets of paper and draw out some petal shapes using their pen or pencil. These should be nearly uniform and circular in shape but needn't be exact. I recommend having each be about two inches in diameter for each petal, but students can use two thumbprints or any similar and non-exact unit to measure their first petal. To help with uniformity, I also recommend students cut out their first petal and use this as a template for the rest.

Having drawn 10-15 petals, students should cut each out and compile them.

Step 2: Creating the Stem

For the stem, students should cut a rectangle shape out of their paper. The one I used was 6 inches long and 3 inches wide. One long end of the rectangle should be glued and the other should be folded over very slightly and then rolled like this over and over until the glued end comes to seal it. This creates a long, somewhat flattened stem piece for the flower. Let this set and dry.

Step 3: Gluing the Petals

Once the stem is finished, students should reach back for their petals. Starting with one petal, place glue on the end and wrap this end around the stem. Wait just a minute for it to dry. Do the same with the next petal but on the opposite side of the stem. As each petal is glued onto the stem, the next should be glued and placed around and around. The more petals that are placed, the lower down the stem each should be glued so that none overlap too closely. This will create a blossoming effect.

Step 4: Creating the Leaves

For the final touch, drop shapes should be traced on a piece of paper. These can really be any size but should be small enough to stick and stay on the stem once cut out. Detail can be added to these leaves as shown in the example photo. Two or three should be drawn, depending on size, and cut out.

Step 5: Gluing the Leaves

The leaves created should be glued to the stem. If there were any details added, they should be facing the outside as the sides not glued onto the stem. Each should be an even distance from one another down the stem.

Step 6: The Final Product!

Once all the glue is set, the final product is revealed... A handmade paper flower!

Future flowers can include different colored paper for each piece, variants in the number of petals and leaves, and even the size and shape of each cut part. No flower has to be the same once the basic steps and structures are understood. Let students get creative!