I posted last week about starting the Paper Crane for Japan work that is happening around the world. I started working with one of my after school groups. We made "rough draft" paper cranes by watching the youtube video. And boy was it hard. I mean really hard. The kids were frustrated, I was frustrated. It looked like we might not ever have a crane that didn't resemble something smashed on the windshield. But as it usually goes with something new, we just needed practice. Today we worked again as a group and as soon as I had "experts" they became teachers and helped others. I had each person make at least 2 white typing paper cranes before passing the level and moving on to the colored paper.
What a difference a little practice can make! There were literally squeals of delight--quickly put to a stop. Can you imagine 25 squealing 4th graders? Me either.
Things were clicking and our box is starting to fill. Some students are planning on making some at home and teaching their families to make them, too. I believe one boy is planning on making 50 tonight. The power of an idea + the efforts of students is awesome.
We went from this:
To this:
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