Fun spring craft ideas using origami to make with your one-year-old!
A warm and sunny spring.
Many teachers are probably thinking, “I want to enjoy spring-themed crafts with the children!” So this time, we’re introducing craft ideas using origami for one-year-olds.
In addition to folding, we’ve packed in ideas that stimulate children’s senses by letting them rip paper, stick pieces on, and use their fingers in lots of ways.
We’ve gathered plenty of spring motifs that are familiar to children, such as tulips, cherry blossoms, ladybugs, and butterflies! Please use these as a reference and enjoy making cute spring crafts together.
Because the children’s creations are treated as works, we use the term “制作” (seisaku: production/work) in the text.
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Fun spring crafts to make with 1-year-olds! Origami-based activity ideas (1–10)
Butterflies made with origami art
Here’s a butterfly craft idea using a picture-book-style background and strips of torn origami paper.
First, prepare origami paper in a few colors and tear it into long, thin strips.
It’s okay if the edges aren’t neat.
Spread glue on the background sheet and attach the origami to make the wings.
Use round stickers to create the patterns.
Finally, have an adult attach the body and face, then draw the antennae and limbs to finish.
Using colorful origami will make it a bright, spring-like paper craft, so try it with your one-year-old.
The simplest tulip
Let’s make some cute tulips that are perfect for spring.
First, fold the origami paper into a triangle.
Fold it into a triangle once more to make a crease, then open it up and fold both corners diagonally upward.
Using the center crease as a guide, fold both corners up at the same angle.
Aligning the corners and making diagonal folds may be difficult for a one-year-old, so an adult should help.
After folding, turn the paper over and fold the left, right, and bottom corners inward to make it look even more like a tulip.
A butterfly you can make with just two folds
Let’s make a butterfly out of origami that only takes two folds! First, prepare one sheet of origami paper and fold it into a triangle.
Next, fold it again to make another triangle, overlapping the paper but offsetting the corners slightly to create a V shape.
And that’s it—the butterfly is complete! It looks like a butterfly seen from the side as it flutters its wings.
If you draw patterns on the wings or add antennae, it will look even more like a butterfly.
Even if the corners are a bit misaligned, it still looks clearly like a butterfly, so give it a try with one-year-olds.
Fun spring crafts to make with 1-year-olds! Origami-based activity ideas (11–20)
A cherry blossom tree made with torn-paper collage
Cherry blossoms are the quintessential spring flowers—almost their synonym.
How about incorporating a torn-paper collage to create a cherry tree? Start by making the trunk on colored construction paper, then draw plenty of branches on top with crayons.
The more branches, the better.
Next, tear pieces of paper and glue them over the branches—mix pink origami, patterned origami, tissue paper, and other colors and textures for a fun, vibrant finish.
Adding little butterflies and other details around it would make it even cuter.
[Tissue Paper] Fluffy Rapeseed Blossoms
Let’s make springlike rapeseed blossoms (nanohana) using construction paper and tissue paper.
Cut the parts for the rapeseed flowers from construction paper.
There are four parts: the flower base, stem, leaves, and flowers.
For the flower parts, cut a strip of origami paper into short pieces, layer them in a cross shape, and glue them together.
Place a round sticker in the center.
Once all the parts are cut out, crumple pieces of tissue paper and glue them onto the base.
After finishing the tissue-paper step, attach the flower parts wherever you like on top.
Finally, connect the stem and leaves to the base to complete it.
We recommend preparing several shades of yellow tissue paper, from light to dark.
Dandelion and Ladybug
Let’s try making a spring-themed dandelion and ladybug craft.
First, as preparation, cut out the dandelion flower and leaves, as well as the ladybug’s face and body parts from construction paper.
Go ahead and draw the face, too.
Have the children tear yellow and orange origami paper and paste the pieces onto the flower parts.
For the ladybug’s body, use black round stickers to create the wing patterns.
Once you’ve prepared a background sheet, let the children place and paste the flower and ladybug parts wherever they like.
Adding drawings in the empty spaces will make it look even more charming!
Easter chick made with torn paper
When it comes to Easter motifs, it’s all about bunnies and eggs.
In this idea, we’ll use eggs to make a little chick peeking out.
For preparation, have an adult cut egg shapes and chick parts out of construction paper.
Children can tear origami paper into small pieces and stick them onto the egg parts to create patterns.
You can draw the chick’s face, but it’s also recommended to use round stickers, or turn construction paper parts into stickers by applying double-sided tape—this makes it easy for kids to place the features themselves.
Finally, glue the egg and chick parts onto a backing sheet, and you’re done!