Origami With A Cause
The concept of origami
(art of paper folding) may not be new to your students as they may be
aware of it since at least sixth grade. However, add a little history,
social studies, and arts and crafts into that concept, and voila! You
get origami with a cause.
While the story is familiar to almost
every Japanese, it might not be the same with foreigners, except those
who have had the opportunity to visit Hiroshima’s Peace Park and had
seen the thousands of paper cranes near the monument of a girl named
Sadako.
Share Sadako’s Story Sadako
Sasaki was two years old when Hiroshima was devastated by an atomic
bomb in August 6, 1945. Ten years later, while practicing for a race,
athletic, strong Sadako became dizzy and fell to the ground. She got
diagnosed with leukemia, the “atom bomb disease.” When her best friend
told her about an old Japanese legend about how anyone’s wish can be
granted if that person folded a thousand paper cranes, she went to
work. However, she died on October 25, 1955 at the age of 12.
According to the World Peace Project for Children website,
her friends were so inspired by her faith and perseverance that they
published her letters. Their dream of building a monument to Sadako and
other children killed by the bomb in turn moved people from all over
Japan. Three years after her death, Sadako’s statue holding a golden
crane can be found at the Hiroshima Peace Park, and at the bottom of
the statue were the words: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace
in the world.”
Welcome to Origami
After sharing Sadako’s story, teach your students the art of paper folding or origami.
The
goal of origami is to use geometric folds and crease patterns.
Originating in China, it reached Japan in the sixth century and became
significant in the Japanese ceremony. Paper butterflies celebrated
Shinto weddings, while noshi, strips of paper bringing good luck, were on gifts given by Samurai warriors.
Paper
cranes, on the other hand, are examples of action origami, when effort
exerted by your hands on a certain part of the bird transfers through
an internal mechanism to move another flap or limb. Considering the
advances these days, origami has evolved from action origami to
mathematical origami to technical origami, where new models can be
plotted out with any actual folding.
Teach Paper Crane and Recycling
With
the legend in mind, have your students bring to class old magazine
pages or semi-used colorful paper pre-cut into perfect squares. This
project gives you a wonderful introduction on the world of recycling.
To
make the project more interesting, inspire your class to create a
thousand paper cranes in just one class hour to pray for one collective
wish - the wish can be for the school, for the class, or for a
sick/troubled classmate.
To demonstrate the art of paper cranes, visit http://www.sadako.com/fold/folding.html for the step-by-step, easy to follow instructions.
To add more meaning to your class project, send mail strings of a hundred cranes each to Sadako’s monument in Hiroshima.
Office of the Mayor
City of Hiroshima
6-34 Kokutaiji-Machi
1 Chome Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730
Japan
Sources:
n. a. (n. d.) How to fold a paper crane. RetrievedOctober 22, 2007 from http://www.sadako.com/fold/folding.html
n. a. (n. d.) Origami. RetrievedOctober 22, 2007 from
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9058330/paper-folding
n. a. (n. d.) Sadako’s story. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www.sadako.org/sadakostory.htm
(Published 30 October 2007, Smart Schools Program)
