Origami is one of those essential activities in early childhood care: it helps develop children’s dexterity and concentration, and lets them experience the joy and sense of achievement that comes from completing a project.
This time, we’ll show you how to make moving toys using origami.
We’re focusing on toys you can make using only origami paper, so there’s very little to prepare—another nice bonus.
You’ll find lots of origami toys with unique, kid-pleasing movements that will spark their curiosity and keep them fully engaged.
Pick the ones that catch your eye, make them, and have fun playing with them!
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It moves! You can play with it! Fun origami. How to make origami toys (1–10)
Jumping cat
We will introduce a fun way to fold an adorable jumping cat.
There are many steps to fold, but as you go along, the cat’s face appears first, so it’s enjoyable all the way to the end! You can draw any face you like on the finished cat, and adding calico patches or stripes makes it extra cute.
If you lightly press and flick the cat’s backside while it stands with its front paws, it hops up in a funny way.
It’s fun to race with friends to see whose cat can jump the farthest, or set up obstacles and compete to see who can clear them with jumps!
Push Pop
Let me introduce a fun origami toy that gives a satisfying little “pop” when you press it with your finger.
Gather some colorful sheets of origami paper and make a bright, cheerful toy.
Origami uses your hands and fingers while you think through the steps, making it a great way to stimulate and refresh both young children and older adults.
Try folding this press-to-dent origami toy, the push pop, by following the steps.
Take your time and you’ll finish it.
Enjoy making the push-pop origami—it’s fun both while you’re folding and when it’s done!
Mini Basketball Game
Here’s an introduction to a mini mini basketball game you can make with origami, where you toss a ball into the hoop.
The key points are creating the creases and the folding of the hoop (goal) section and the launcher section.
Once you’ve formed the box-shaped parts in large and small sizes, you’ll use the larger box as the launcher.
Flatten it into a triangle by squashing and folding it.
This step is very important for making the ball fly.
For the ball, crumple a small piece of origami paper into a ball shape.
Try challenging yourself to see if you can successfully shoot into the hoop! If the ball doesn’t fly, adjust the folded section inside the launcher—it acts like a spring.
Propeller
Do you remember the first piece of origami you ever folded? The memory might be a bit fuzzy, but I think everyone has folded a paper airplane at least once.
Watching a plane you made fly through the air—it was exciting, even moving, wasn’t it? So let me introduce an origami model that’s one step up from the paper airplane: the “propeller,” which some people call a “paper copter.” Once you make it, be sure to play with it together with friends.
In addition to the propeller shown in this video, there are various kinds of propellers and paper copters—like the spinning bamboo-copter type and a box-shaped type that spins a lot.
Have fun and give them all a try!
Snap camera
These days, cameras are a given feature on smartphones, but in the past, simply owning a camera was a cherished aspiration.
In those times, the kind of camera a child could have was this origami ‘pachin’ camera.
How about making this nostalgically Showa-era camera together as a parent and child and letting your thoughts drift back to the old days? The folding method is quite similar to the yakko-san and the hakama for the yakko-san, so if you can fold those, this should be easy to make.
It’s cleverly designed to even produce a shutter sound.
