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Easy origami for kids – how to make origami animals

Origami is the perfect kids craft as you don't need any special supplies and it captures their attention instantly. Follow our simple step by step guide to how to make three super simple origami animals that kids will love – a fish, cat and frog!

Zoe Williams

Published: January 31, 2022 at 11:08 pm

Looking for ways to keep children busy during a rainy day, or simple kids craft ideas to get creative at home? Origami transfixes children – after all its basically papercraft magic. Pitch the difficulty level right and they'll enjoy the confidence boost of creating their very own animal with the wonder at seeing their paper turn into their animal before their eyes.

We tried and tested the three easy origami tutorials for kids in this article on children aged 6, 7 and 9. We were amazed how much fascinated they were. They even turned down snacks until they'd insisted on trying out all 3 animals.

For younger children, start with the origami fish. My daughter is 6 and she found this the easiest animal of the bunch to fold. It's also the animal I can remember making when I was a child. The fish only takes a few folds and less than 5 minutes, for children to get the hang of it.

With a couple of extra folds, try our step by step guide to how to make an origami cat next. The cat is also a very simple beginner-friendly origami project for children, and we think he looks super cute with some whiskers drawn on in felt tip pen plus a couple of googly eyes.

Once you've got the hang of the basics, have a go at our origami frog. He involves a few next-level folds to keep older children interested. Plus he has the benfit of doubling up as a game to play – once he's finished he will jump or hop forwards when you press his back, concertina, edge. While we made our frog out of a 6in square of paper, you could increase the size of your starter paper to make some of the later, tighter folds a bit easier to handle.

You might also like our other origami guides – easy origami for beginners or try our other origami tutorials – how to make an origami rabbit and how to make an origami boat.

The only thing you'll need to make these origami animals is some origami paper. We used this pack of 200 sheets of 6inch origami papers (Amazon, £5.99) but you can also use any sheet of A4 or rectangular paper, cut into a square shape.If you want to add a bit of personality, you can also use PVA glue and googly eyes.

3 origami animals to make with children

How to make an origami fish

Step 1

Take a square of origami paper and fold it in half diagonally to make a triangle.

Fodl your paper into a triangle

Step 2

Unfold this and then turn 90 degrees. Now fold again diagonally between the other 2 corners.

Unfold your paper then fold in half in the opposite diredtion

Unfold and flip your paper upside down.

How to make an origami fish step 6

Step 3

With your paper square in front of you, fold the bottom edge upwards to meet the top edge and fold in half, so the crease of this fold lies where the centre of the 2 previous diagonal creases falls.

Fold your paper horizontally, from the bottom edge upwards to meet the top
Press along the fold to crease it

Unfold this fold.

Unfold to reveal the crease line

Step 4

Rotate your paper by 90 degrees and then repeat step 3, folding the paper in half horizontally again.

Now fold the paper in half horizontally again in the opposite direction
Crease this fold line too

Unfold again so you have a flat square with 4 creased fold lines that all meet in the centre.

Step 5

Holding your paper underneath, in the middle of the left and right edges, gently lift the left and right sides of your paper upwards from beneath so that the central point of the left and right edge meets in the middle. Your paper should give way at the diagnonal fold lines as you do this.

Lift up the left and right sides to fold the square in on itself

Bring the left and right central points in together to meet in the middle.

Bring the left and right edges together to meet in the middle

Now press your shape flat to form a triangle with the folds from your previous steps enclosed within it.

Now press your shape flat
Press firmly to form a triangle

Step 6

Rotate your triangle by 90 degrees so there is a long edge on your left and the point at the right.

Turn your triangle by 90 degrees clockwise

Step 7

Take the bottom point of the triangle and fold the top section of it upwards to form a fold line that stretches from the triangle’s righthand point, to about 1 cm below the centre point of the left edge. This is your fish’s first fin.

Fold the bottom tip upwards

Step 8

Now repeat this step but this time folding the top left tip downwards in a mirror action to step 7

How to make an origami fish new 1

Step 9

Flip your paper upside down to make the fish.

Turn your paper upside down

If you want to, you can add a googly eye with dab of glue to give your fish a little personality.

How to make an origami fish step 17