[For 4-year-olds] Recommended for August! Craft ideas: Enjoy a variety of motifs
As August arrives, summer is in full swing, and many teachers may be wondering how best to spend those hot days.
There may be only a limited number of days when you can go outdoors.
At such times, try incorporating craft activities full of summer atmosphere so children can enjoy the season, at least in spirit.
Four-year-olds have blossoming imaginations, so we’ve gathered ideas that let them freely enjoy expressing themselves.
Please use these as a reference.
Because the children’s creations are regarded as works (art pieces), we use the term “seisaku” (制作) in the text to refer to them.
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[Age 4] Recommended for August! Craft ideas: Enjoy a variety of motifs (21–30)
Cute crab

Searching for crabs that often hide among rocks in the sea or rivers can be a wonderfully seasonal and fulfilling activity for children.
Here’s a simple origami crab you can make.
Fold into a triangle and a square to create creases.
Using those creases as guides, tuck the paper inward to form a triangle and shape the model.
While aligning with the central starting point and center line, fold and bend to create the crab’s claws and legs.
A key tip is to press the folds firmly.
Draw eyes on round stickers, attach them, and you’re done!
Super easy! Shaved ice

Let’s make a cold and delicious summer classic—shaved ice—using a single sheet of origami paper.
Fold the paper into a triangle, and as you crease it, shape it into a shaved ice form.
The key is to create a rounded look for the shaved ice as you go.
Use bright, summery colors of origami paper.
Once it’s finished, decide what flavor you want and color it with markers.
It’s also a great idea to make fruit or other toppings and add them on.
Give it a try!
[For 4-year-olds] Recommended for August! Craft ideas: Enjoy a variety of motifs (31–40)
Easy Origami Eggplant

Let me introduce a delicious-looking eggplant made of origami—perfect for summer vegetables.
Prepare one sheet each of purple and light purple origami and let’s get started.
Fold the light purple sheet to create the base of the eggplant.
Partway through, cut the dark purple origami into a smaller square and glue it onto the light purple sheet—this is the key step.
That part will become the eggplant’s calyx.
Keep making sharp creases as you shape the eggplant.
Once it’s finished, it’s also fun to draw an eggplant field on poster paper and stick on the completed eggplants to enjoy with the children.
Plump goldfish
https://www.tiktok.com/@sachimama_asobi/video/7260304263862127880Let’s make a cute, plump goldfish.
Up to a point, this follows the same steps as folding a balloon.
Fold the origami so that two triangles overlap, then fold the two corners of one triangle up to meet the top corner.
Fold the left and right corners of the diamond formed in the center toward the center line, then fold down the two corners you just lifted and tuck them inside.
Turn the paper over, fold the left and right edges of the triangle toward the center line, and on the left side only, fold the bottom corner up at a right angle.
Glue it to the right side as is to form the tail fin.
Blow air into the balloon section to inflate it, add eyes, and your goldfish is complete.
How to fold an easy uchiwa (paper fan)

Here’s a fan craft idea you can also use for summer wall decorations.
Place the origami paper with the colored side up, fold it into a triangle, then open it.
Fold the two left edges in to meet the crease.
Rotate the paper so that the folded corner is at the bottom.
Fold the two corners at the center of the paper outward to form triangles.
Tuck the corners slightly to the back to round them, and do the same to round the top corner.
Fold up the lower corner of the white area, then fold it back down leaving about 1 cm to create a pleat (accordion fold).
While flattening the corners of the pleated section into triangles, fold the left and right edges toward the center line.
Tuck the bottom corner to the back, and your fan is complete.
Cute sunflower

Let’s make a sunflower in origami that blooms toward the summer sun.
Glue yellow and orange origami paper together so that both colored sides are visible.
Make firm creases as you fold.
When you open and fold the paper toward the center, do it gently and carefully.
Fold each corner inward, then align the folded sections to the center and fold the left and right sides.
Open the folded sections, fold the top upward, then tuck the corners inside to shape the sunflower’s petals and finish the flower.
To make the center, fold a piece of brown origami paper in half into a triangle twice, then fold the corners toward the center.
Insert the brown piece into the middle of the sunflower, and you’re done.
Please give it a try!
Ice Cream Kendama

Delicious ice cream turned into a kendama! Here’s a craft idea where, if you succeed at the kendama, it becomes an ice cream.
Draw a cone pattern on brown construction paper and mark the middle of either long side.
Align the end of a piece of kite string with the mark and tape it down, then roll the paper into a cone shape and secure it with tape.
It’s safer to tape down the stringed area as well.
Attach the other end of the kite string to the center of a sheet of newspaper with tape, and crumple the newspaper into a ball.
Cover it with your favorite color of origami paper from the top and secure it to make the ice cream part.
Draw patterns on the ice cream, and you’re done!


