A Heartfelt Book & an Origami Bird Mobile!
After reading Heather Smith’s “A Plan for Pops” we remembered we had a leftover project from our Girls Can! Crate subscription from a couple of years ago. Its weird how things work out because each crate comes with a few projects and although we completed the rest of them, this one remained. Every once in a while I take it out but it somehow always gets looked over. But after seeing the beautiful paper cranes in this story, we finally had the motivation we needed to push us into completing this project! I’m excited to walk you through how we made this beautiful origami bird mobile, so let’s get started…
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Summary of “A Plan for Pops”
“A Plan for Pops” written by Heather Smith and illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan is a heartfelt story about family, unconditional love & being there for each other during difficult transitions. Granddad, Pops & their grandchild Lou have a wonderful relationship and spend time together every Saturday. One day Pops has a fall & needs to be in a wheelchair from now on. Of course this is a challenging time for all of them but together they come up with an amazing plan to support Pops. 🙂 Highly recommended!
How We Made an Origami Bird Mobile…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity we took out a few sheets of square origami paper and looked on YouTube for a tutorial on how to make paper cranes.
Once we found one we liked (found here), we followed along folding the paper and pausing at every fold, working together to each make a paper crane. Its not the easiest activity, my daughter who typically can find joy in all tasks was not a fan. I on the other hand found it to be both intense and calming at the same time. The second crane we made was definitely easier and a good reminder that things often get easier with practice, so remember the first time is usually the most challenging.
After our origami cranes were made, we punched a hole, tied a string to them and hung them on the branch provided in our Girls Can! Crate. We tied another string connecting both ends of the branch so we could hang it up in our homeschool room window to admire.
Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird”
The Girls Can! Crate subscription box that gave us the idea of making an origami bird mobile was focused on learning all about Maya Angelou. It included a link to one of her famous poems, “Caged Bird” found here. This is a great poem to pair with this activity for another layer of literacy and a link to celebrating Black History as well.
Wait?!? Am I Supposed To Be Making One Too?
I highly recommend getting hands on and doing art projects with your child. If you’d rather not, thats okay too, but please do not correct anything they do. If you want the art to look a certain way – make your own.
Especially if your child is little, its okay if it doesn’t turn out the way you imagined. Maybe its what they imagined. Also, its a process. They are learning. They will learn more through trial and error than if you correct them or do it for them. All they will learn if you “help” is that they didn’t do a good enough job on their own or they can’t do it; not exactly the message you want to give your kid. Am I right?!?
Believe me, I know it can be really challenging to let them make “mistakes”. Try doing the project along side them. It will allow you to focus on your own work, give them appropriate modeling of how to use the materials, and show them that you like art too! A lot of what I talk about in “What about the Sensory Mess?” applies to Art projects as well, you might wanna check it out! I love how each art has its own identity. I would suggest making an Origami Bird Mobile if you’re looking for an engaging and meaningful art activity to connect with your child.
If you’re looking for more bookish play with books featuring Grandpa’s, you might wanna check out our Painting with Blocks, Easy Shirt & Tie Card, or Watercolor Art posts! For more LGBTQ+ Bookish Play, you might wanna check out our Confetti Pop Painting Art or our Bubbles & Bubble Wrap Art posts!
Materials We Used
- “A Plan for Pops” book (from the library or buy one here)
- Origami paper
- Stick/branch
- Pen
- String
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make an Origami Bird Mobile?
- Click this link to follow along watching this YouTube video tutorial we learned from.
Once you have a few cranes and your stick/branch… - Punch a hole in the center of the middle triangle.
- Tie a string from the punched hole to the stick/branch and tie at both ends.
*Hang the cranes at all different lengths so they aren’t bumping into each other. - Tie a string on one end of the stick/branch.
- Decide where you will hang it.
- Making the string long enough to hang where you want it and then tie the other end of the string to the other end of the stick/branch.
- Hang up your Origami Bird Mobile!
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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