Origami n' Stuff 4 Kids: fun facts

Origami Folding Tips

Origami, from the Japanese ori (to fold) and kami (paper), began in the 6th century when Buddhist monks introduced paper to Japan. The print-and-fold crafts and easy diagrams are designed to help children with fine motor skills, directions and hand eye coordination. Some basic origami folding tips:

Print and cut out patterns carefully.
Fold with clean, dry hands.
Follow the instructions. Study the diagrams and be patient.
Be precise: fold each crease well, flattening the creases by running your fingertip over the fold.
Folding the paper away from you is easier than folding towards you.
Be creative...use your origami on greeting cards, holiday decorations, table place cards and bookmarks.

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Monarch Butterfly

With its distinctive orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is the most famous of North American butterflies, best known for its long migrations.

No single butterfly survives the journey. Instead, it takes four generations of butterflies to travel south to southern California and Mexico to winter in warmer climates. There, they roost by the thousands, sometimes covering trees. In the spring, they begin the long migration back up to the United States and Canada.

The monarch butterfly is the official state butterfly of Alabama, Minnesota, Vermont and West Virginia.

Print and Fold a Monarch Butterfly Origami:

Difficulty: Easy

Directions: Follow the same directions as below.

1a. Print and cut out image along outer solid lines.

2a. With printed side facing down,

2b. Fold in half along diagonal line.

2c. Unfold and repeat the diagonal fold on other side.

3a. With printed side facing up,

3b. Fold in half along horizontal line.

3c. Unfold. Your paper should be creased as illustrated.

4. Carefully fold along creases, forming a "tent" as illustrated.

5a. Fold the right "tent" corner up along line A, as illustrated.
5b. Fold the left "tent" corner up along line B, as illustrated.

6a. Turn butterfly over, printed side down.
6b. Fold down along line C.
6c. Pinch or crease in center as illustrated.

Your monarch butterfly is ready to fly!

OCTOBER 31: Halloween Crafts, Origami and Fun Facts

What is it about this spooky holiday that inspires us to dress up as witches, ghouls and zombies? Americans love Halloween so much, we spend 2 billion dollars a year on costumes, candy and decorations, making it the second highest grossing holiday (after Christmas, of course).

And what about those crazy giant pumpkins, like the 1,500 pound monster grown by Jake van Kooten of British Columbia, who won $9,000 at California's Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Harvest and Festival? Did he really ship his pumpkin all the way from Canada to California?

If Mr. Kooten's prize money doesn't cover shipping his gourd back to British Columbia, then perhaps he can paddle his pumpkin home, like the good folks at the world's largest pumpkin boat race at the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival in Germany. Every year enthusiasts don their pumpkin hats and paddle across the moat of a 17th Century castle in 200lb hollowed-out gourds. Between races, visitors can check out the 450 varieties of pumpkins, admire the pumpkin sculptures, and partake in pumpkin pies, stews and curries. Yum. A boat you can eat.

History of Halloween

Unnaturally large squashes aside, Halloween dates back some 2,000 years and in its current form is a mishmash of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic and Roman religious rituals, and of course, modern commercialism. Long before Walmart, October 31 marked the Celtic holiday of Samhain, a harvest festival observing the end of summer, when ancient Celts disguised themselves in costumes and masks and lit bonfires to ward off evil spirits. The harvest holiday was especially important because it marked the seasonal transition between the warm "lighter half" of the year, or the growing season, and the cold, dreary "darker half". This transition from a time of bounty to impending austerity extended into the spiritual world; it was believed that the boundaries between the living and the "otherworld" became especially thin, allowing the dead to pass over into this world.

Samhain and its pagan rituals, and some elements of the Roman festival of Feralia, which honored the dead, became integrated into All Saint's Day and all Soul's Day. In medieval Ireland and Britain, the poor would go from door to door asking for food in return for prayers for the dead, giving rise to "guising", a tradition in which Scottish and Irish children disguised themselves in costumes and went door to door requesting food and coins.

Save on Halloween decorations with these fun, printable Halloween origami and crafts.

Vampire Bat Origami	Bat Origami
Black Cat Origami	Haunted House Origami
Halloween Monster Origami
Monster Mask	Owl Mask
Owl Origami	Owl Paper Bag Puppet
Pinwheel Spider	Pumpkin Mask
Pumpkin Box	Skeleton
Skull Mask	Vampire (Dracula) Origami

SWARMING DADDY LONGLEGS! The explanation behind the creepy phenomenon

So, fellow nerds, what's with this video circulating on Facebook and Youtube?

First of all, these are not spiders. They are harvestmen or daddy-longlegs. For those of you who remember the ol' mnemonic device for taxonomy, King Philip Can Order Fresh Green Salad (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species), these critters, like spiders, scorpions and ticks, are in the class Arachnida. However, harvestmen belong to their own order, Opiliones.

So what's the difference?

Harvestmen have a single cephalothorax and a single pair of eyes. True spiders have a narrow "waist" that creates two segments, the cephalothorax and abdomen.
Harvestmen have a single pair of eyes. True spiders most commonly have eight eyes, however they can have no eyes, or as many as 12 eyes.
Harvestmen are nonvenomous.
Harvestmen have no spinnerets, so they do not spin webs.
Harvestmen are older than spiders--the oldest fossil, from Scotland, is at least 400 million years old. True spiders are about 300 million years old.
Harvestmen are omnivores--they eat dead stuff, bird droppings, fungus and small arthropods and slugs.

Finally, the question every one is asking. WHY DO THEY DO THIS? They mass for defensive purposes, and to keep themselves warm. Harvestmen possess a pair of stinky glands called ozopores; when they mass, the combined smell can be quite disturbing. Swarming also makes them appear larger. When disturbed, the entire throng will sometimes bob and sway--a truly unsettling effect.

Learn more about harvestmen/daddy long legs:

http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

http://www.newsweek.com/video-science-explains-why-thousands-daddy-longlegs-swarmed-house-312362

http://mentalfloss.com/article/59455/15-fascinating-facts-about-daddy-longlegs

Wild Turkey Origami

Eastern wild turkey. Photo by Dimus.

The wild turkey, the largest and heaviest of all gamefowls, is native to North America and ithe official state bird of Alabama and Massachusetts.

The Eastern wild turkey is found in woodlands and savannas throughout the eastern U.S. and up into Canada, where they scrounge on forest floors and through grasslands for nuts, seeds, fruits, insects and salamanders. They were a favored food of Native Americans, and the first turkey encountered by the Puritans.

Turkeys, with their distinctive red wattles (males only), fanned tails and gobbling, have become so much a part of our national heritage and our traditional celebrations that's it hard to imagine an America without them. Yet, by the early part of the 20th century, hunting and the loss of woodland forests threatened to wipe them out. Fortunately, with intensive wild turkey reintroduction programs to relocate the birds to their native habitats, wild turkeys are here to stay.

Fun Fact:
Benjamin Franklin preferred the wild turkey as the national bird:

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him...

With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward...

I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."

Print and fold a Turkey origami.

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Directions:

1a. Print Turkey Origami.

2a. Cut out Turkey Origami.
2b. Cut along bold red lines, as shown by red arrows.
2c. Fold turkey tail feather back, as shown by blue arrow.

3. Accordion fold tail feathers, back and forth, as shown.

4. Repeat accordion folds on other side.

5. Fold body up as shown.

6a. Fold turkey body forward to center, as shown.

6b. Repeat on other side.

7. Fold turkey's head down, as shown.

8a. Fold corners of turkey body back, as shown.
8b. Fold top of tail back, as shown.

9a. Grasping tip of tail, pull down to open accordion pleats, as shown.
9b. Repeat on other side.

10. Fold bottom of body back, as shown, then glue onto Happy Thanksgiving Day card.

MORE THANKSGIVING CRAFTS AND ORIGAMI

Bat-Toad?

Halloween is around the corner, so you'd think that this is a Photoshopped image of a toad ready for a night of Trick-or-Treating in his bat costume.

Except this is not an altered image. This photo was taken by park ranger Yufani Olaya at a remote guard station in Peru's Cerros de Arnotape National Park. In an interview with Rainforest Expeditions (blog.perunature.com), Olaya says that "out of nowhere the bat just flew directly into the mouth of the toad, which almost seemed to be sitting with its mouth wide open."

The mountainous Cerrros de Arnotape National Park, where Olaya took the photo, is spread out over 90,000 hectares. The park's geography features a combination of dry tropical forests and zones, arid zones, and Andean mountain range ecosystems that support a tremendous amount of biodiversity such as Andean condors, spotted cats, red deer, gray deer, anteaters, spectacled bears, Guayaquil squirrels and scarlet macaws.

To learn why the bat may have been flying so close to the ground, and what happened to it, read the full article at Rainforest Expeditions.

To fold an origami bat, click here.

To fold an origami frog, click here.

Battty for Bats: 10 Essential Bat Facts, Plus Photo Gallery!

How much do you know about these misunderstood mammals? Check out Bats: 10 Essential Bat Facts, Plus Photo Gallery! by Rhishja Larson:

"Bats may be considered a spooky Halloween mascot, but they are actually one of the most beneficial animals on the planet: 70% of the world’s bat species feed on insects - and one bat can consume up to 1,000 insect pests in an hour. Bats also play a critical role in pollination and seed dispersal.

Despite the fact that bats occur nearly everywhere on earth (except for arctic and desert extremes), 60 species of bats are listed as endangered. And in the U.S., an estimated million or more hibernating bats of six species have been killed by White-nose Syndrome (WNS) in nine states since 2006."

Click on the photo of the white-shouldered bat to read Rhishja's full article, view her slideshow, and learn 10 fascinating facts about bats!

Print and fold an origami bat here:

Origami n' Stuff 4 Kids

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