Origami Bats

Neither my son nor I have ever done origami … at least before this activity. Making paper bats seemed like a great craft to accompany a lesson on the only mammals that fly.

We started reading a couple of great books. I read the first book; my son read the second.

Then I grabbed some black and brown construction paper and cut it into a square – 8 inches and 6 inches. Now we got folding. Here are the step-by-step instructions.

1. Take your paper square and bring two opposing points together and fold.
2. Pull the triangle’s point over the fold and crease about an inch or inch-and-a-half down from the fold.
3. What you’ll have now sort of looks like a boat.
4. Flip the boat over so your paper is flat and the small triangle at the top of the boat is peeking out over the top from behind.
5. Make two creases on a slight diagonal close to the center (with only an inch between them), folding in the large flaps on either side on either side.
6. The flaps will now be sticking up.
7. Fold one flap across the body of the bat and fold it back on a diagonal.
8. Repeat with the other side.
9. Flip your paper over.
10. Fold and crease the tips of the wings in and down toward the center.
11. Flip the paper over once again. Draw lines to cut out the bat’s ears from the flat side of the bat’s head.
12. Cut along your lines. Lastly, add two googly eyes!

Once my son and I had both made our bats, he wrote down some of what he’d learned on a recording sheet I’d made. Download it here.