Winter Origami
Students have so much energy right before winter break that it is often a task to channel all that in a productive way. I have found that origami and kiragami are just perfect to do with middle schoolers because the processes can be repetitive and somewhat mindless once they've mastered the folds. Also, kids can quickly knock out things like snowflakes and ninja stars within a class period or two. Having a tangible product pretty quickly builds their confidence and they seem to want to make more. (Which worked out great for me since we, the faculty, were tasked with decorating our hallways for the holiday season. The large-scale origami pieces are beautiful to hang as snowflake-like forms!)
The trickiest part in doing origami with middle school students comes with knowing which projects and folds will be hard enough for kids to step up and try (and look cool) and which ones are just too tricky where kids will become defeated and quit. For me, it varies with each new class of students. Some years I have students who want an "extreme" challenge and I have kids make lots of 3D little trees and then some years we struggle. This year I had a group where they could be moderately challenged so we created these origami ugly-sweater vests. I think they did a really nice job and these were so fun!
Enjoy!
If you are interested in using this resource, check out my store on TpT:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ugly-Sweater-Vest-Origami-Holiday-Shirt-3542119
