Origami to Enjoy January and Winter! A Collection of Simple Ideas to Use in Childcare
Many people may be unsure which motifs to choose for origami activities in January childcare.
If you express New Year’s traditional games and decorations with origami, you can enjoy making them with children while feeling the season.
There are plenty of New Year motifs like battledores, spinning tops, Daruma dolls, and kagami mochi.
Winter-themed creations such as snowmen and snow bunnies are also perfect for this time of year.
Here, we’ll introduce origami ideas that you can enjoy with children in January childcare.
We’ve gathered a variety of ideas, from simple step-by-step projects to those made by combining several parts, so please use them as a reference!
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Origami to Enjoy January and Winter! A Collection of Simple Ideas to Use in Childcare (41–50)
Easy one-sheet horse origami
For someone who’s far away, a child’s growth can feel incredibly fast, right? Here’s an idea for a New Year’s card: attach a horse made from origami.
Origami is said to nurture not only fine motor skills but also thinking skills and the ability to plan ahead.
The recipient will likely be delighted to see that the child can now create such a lovely piece with origami.
You only need one sheet of origami paper, and adding eyes with a pen or round stickers gives it a cute finish.
Recommended for preschoolers in the middle to older age range.
Easy and cute! Origami snow rabbit daruma
This is a rabbit snowman made with two sheets of origami paper! First, we’ll make the head: fold the paper twice to make a small triangle.
Then unfold one fold so it’s folded only once, and roll-fold the base of the triangle about 1 cm.
Next, leave a small gap in the center and fold both corners straight up.
These will be the rabbit’s ears, so fold the top corners into small triangles to round them off.
Fold the left, right, and bottom corners inward to tidy the outline, then flip the paper over.
Fold the corner at the base of the ears to the back to finish the head.
For the body, do a cushion fold (zabuton fold), flip the paper over, and do another cushion fold.
Finally, fold the square into a triangle and you’re done! Glue the two parts together and draw the face to finish.
Horse made with torn-paper collage
It’s fun to see small torn pieces come together into a big picture! This is one of the projects we hope children will enjoy making together with teachers or guardians, appropriate to their age.
You’ll need paper or postcards, origami paper in various colors, glue or a tape runner, and a pen for sketching.
For preschool classes, it’s also a good idea to adapt the activity as practice in cutting pieces to a suitable size with scissors.
If the pieces are made too small, the pasting step can become difficult, so proceed with care as you work toward the finished piece!
Let’s make a hat with wax-resist painting!
Let’s enjoy wax-resist painting with winter-themed motifs! First, draw a hat and a pair of mittens on white paper.
Have the children trace the outlines with a white crayon, then let them add any patterns they like.
Since they’ll be drawing white on white, it’s hard to see—but hang in there! Once the patterns are done, paint over everything with watercolor diluted with water.
This will make the patterns drawn with the white crayon appear as if they’re popping out.
Fluffy giant kagami mochi!
Let’s brighten up your January wall display with a fluffy kagami mochi! You’ll make a kagami mochi, mandarin orange, sanpō tray, urajiro fern, shihōbeni (red-bordered paper), gohei (ceremonial paper), and a ribbon.
For the kagami mochi, stack several sheets of flower paper, accordion-fold them, tie the center with string, then fluff out each sheet one by one.
For the other parts, cut the shapes from colored construction paper or kraft paper and glue them together.
For the sanpō, it’s recommended to crumple the kraft paper once to add wrinkles for texture.
Along with the kagami mochi, adding origami flowers and the zodiac animal will make your wall display even more charming!