3 Great Paper Crafts for Kids (And Why You Should Be Teaching Them!)

For adults there’s hardly ever a time where picking up a piece of paper means “fun.”  When we’re confronted with a piece of paper, it’s usually a utility bill or a form that we have to fill out at the post office.

It’s not quite the same for kids, though. If you’ll remember back to your own childhood, there really wasn’t anything bad to associate with a piece of paper. In fact, looking at a stack of colorful construction paper was like an invitation to go nuts with glitter, glue, crayons, and pretty much anything else in the craft box!

Well, when it comes to being an adult and crafting with your kids, there’s still one thing you can really love about paper: it’s really cheap! A box of crayons and a pile of blank pages can go a pretty long way when you set them in front of an imaginative child.

But what if you don’t have the crayons? Or the glitter, glue, scissors, or anything else? Well, paper is still a pretty useful thing to have. Here are a few paper crafts that don’t require any extra stuff!

Origami 

Traditionally, origami is a paper folding craft that originated in Japan. It’s often used to describe a number of folding practices now, though. One of the main points of “traditional” origami is that it doesn’t allow for any cutting, glue, tape, or marks on the paper. Origami projects range from super simple to very challenging, so it’s suitable for kids in many ages. It’s a good craft for kids because it teaches spatial skills, coordination, and even helps train memory.

Kirigami

 Kirigami is sort of like origami except that it involves cutting the paper. It’s often more closely associated with traditional Chinese paper craft, not Japanese (although the word itself is Japanese.) If you’ve ever cut a folded piece of paper to make a snowflake, you’ve done kirigami! There are a number of different projects out there, including kirigami flowers, boxes, and pentagons. More elaborate projects involve gluing muliple kirigami together to make pop-ups.

Paper Airplanes

Even as an adult, I find it difficult not to fold a stray piece of paper into something. What could be better for a quick project than a paper airplane? There are tons of different designs out there to learn and practice, and making them helps introduce children to the basic concepts of engineering and problem solving.