Making 3D snowflakes

[simplypanda]

This lesson is kind of material intensive. It requires a lot of paper, scissors and tape.

I've done this lesson in the past, and the students usually love it. I've never made a powerpoint for it, but decided to make a simple one this time. There are no pictures because I demonstrate everything in front of the class and I really want their full attention on me. At the end I show them a finished one... which is again, why there's no picture.

I really recommend that you try this yourself before teaching it!

Here are clear instructions with pictures and a how to video: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake

[rmariel7]

LOVE! Thank you!!

[Paul]

Wow. Might well do this with the older grades in my elementary school, cheers for the idea.

My rush-job trial one looks like rubbish though. :/

[simplypanda]

Wow. Might well do this with the older grades in my elementary school, cheers for the idea.

My rush-job trial one looks like rubbish though. :/

Hahaha! You definitely can! When I taught hagwon, I did this with even 1st and 2nd graders... granted my classes were smaller. I'm sure you can manage with the older students though!

[mariag]

My after-school class loved this. Thank you!

[hankmcmasters]

double sided origami paper might be pretty awesome for this project~

each side is a different color, i.e. red/blue

could make some nice snowflakes~

[BBetz1985]

Added the pictures and link for the website. Great job. Might go well with some hot cocoa. 

[simplypanda]

double sided origami paper might be pretty awesome for this project~

each side is a different color, i.e. red/blue

could make some nice snowflakes~

Yeah, it looks really nice! I've used it in hagwon classes before, but with close to 900 middle school students I can't afford it with them... unfortunate!

[Olga]

i just did this activity with my 6th graders and all i can tell you is:

Gracias!
Thank you!
Baie Dankie!
Kamsamida!
Merci!
Akpe Kaka!
Toda Rava!

i wish i could speak more languages simply to praise this lesson!!!! hahahaha!!! 

[girandola]

Oh man. I did this with my 1st and 2nd graders (MS) as an after-finals class and it went over SO well. Some kids even stayed behind during their lunch break to finish their snowflakes :>
This was my take on the lesson: I started with the video a few seconds in and asked the students to guess what he was making. Then we went over craft vocab (fold, unfold, cut, tape, staple, diagonally) with hand motions (yay kinesthetics!) and I had them all make one arm of the snowflake by following my demonstration before I cut them loose. I didn't have that many supplies at all - only about 9 scissors and rolls of tape for classes of 15-25 so I had them work in teams and then use the extra time to decorate their snowflakes. And now my coteachers and I are going to hang them up in the English room for winter camps :>
Awesome, awesome idea.

[honeymooners]

We did this using all of our old worksheets, the kids liked cutting them up and the snowflakes looked individual, plus it recycled a lot of paper.

[hankmcmasters]

i can't believe how much my students hated this

and now i kind of hate them

[honeymooners]

Isn't it strange how some activities just bomb for no reason?

[fl4mers]

I managed to get my whole classroom decorated in time for xmas thanks to this lesson! Thank you so much! My 1st and 2nd grade middle schoolers loved it! We used coloured paper for the stars, so there were lots of combinations...I've attached a picture, take a look!

By the way, just as a little tip, If you give the students paper that's half the size of A4, then not only do you use less paper, the stars actually turn out nicer as well! Half the classes made stars with A4 size paper and the rest, with half the size of A4, but quite a lot of students said they preferred the smaller ones...

Oh and I made a PPT and worksheet for the students to follow, in case anybody would like to use those in future. Thanks again, this was great ^0^

[Cranberryopah]

My middle school grades 1-3--not at all namby pamby--went crazy for these. They made them for their teachers, they made small ones to take home. By the 18th class I was quietly hating snowflakes, but the students who hadn't made them yet came up to me asking if they could. They made extras for their teachers, and colourful ones for the VP. One boy who wears a nail through his ear after school, made a massive snowflake and posed with it for a picture.  We put them on the edges of our wall length bulletin board as a frame.

You just never know what will take off. Thank you so much from me and my school.

[sheedi]

This was a cool lesson. I did it for my winter camp as a project and they enjoyed it. We used different colot paper so it looks really festive.

[hankmcmasters]

perhaps i should clarify

i personally enjoyed making a 3d snowflake all on my own.  making a 'practice' one turned into two or three.

i taught this to both of my winter camp groups, and the first one hated it.  but the other section i taught this to became too engaged.  they wouldn't stop making snowflakes.  one table had even taken out their own little razor blades to continue making miniature snowflakes during the next part of class, so i had to take those away to get them back on track.

and so, thanks for the idea

[torstrom]

I did this with my grade two middle schoolers. At the start of camp we learned a lot of new winter vocabulary so prior to making our snowflakes I had them do a winter brain blizzard(found on google). They then wrote all the vocabulary on their snowflakes after they had cut them but prior to taping them. They stayed a half an hour late that day to make more. Great lesson!

[mistee]

I'm definitely going to try this out with my kids, and the idea of using old worksheets is PERFECT ~ thanks so much for this! 

[ferdo06]

i used to make these when i was a kid... only in 2d though