Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Art for Japan

I stumbled upon the Paper Cranes for Japan project on the website Students Rebuild found here. For every paper crane made and sent in, the Bezos Family Foundation will donate $2 to Architecture for Humanity. The goal is to reach 100,000 paper cranes to be woven into an art installation to symbolize a gift from students around the world to the children of Japan. The effort is being virtually documented on Facebook. The website also has a helpful link to a video tutorial on how to make a paper crane. I know I will be watching this a few times. Following the little picture diagrams is not my style!

What a great idea for students! Children LOVE to do origami. Creating something three-dimensional from nothing always amazes them, and really, it is pretty amazing. This is a great way to teach about art from a different part of world while contributing to something bigger than ourselves. My after school art club will definitely be doing this, and I know they will be passionate about their contribution. Has anyone done this already? Or anyone know of any other service projects through art? We would love to get involved!

Off to acquire some origami paper, and some mad folding skills.

6 comments:

  1. Josh Allen (@j_allen) sent me your way. I think this is a marvelous idea. This is something we did: http://bit.ly/ict7Ge -- Please share what you all end up doing. We'd love to see and take part. Keep the message going. We are all praying for our family in Japan.

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  2. I'm very excited to see how this project turns out. I also found this link from Kristina Peters who is at Spring Lake in OPS about what they are doing: http://kristinapeters.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/change-japan/
    Great job, Jana!

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  3. My 3rd graders are having a great time folding. We have over 225 completed. Good luck with yours!

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  4. Mr. Macdonald - My after school art group watched your video to get us pumped up about the project. My students are excited to help. We started making a "rough draft" crane last week.

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  5. Barb - That's great! Did you find a good tutorial on making the cranes?

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