In today’s day in age, people of all ages are moving at a consistently fast speed, in an extremely competitive world.   When observing students, they seem to be trying to move as fast as technology.  Students want to be the best, have the best, and know the best.  Unfortunately, far too often, students are thrown into this fast- paced, dog-eat-dog society, without being given the necessary tools to navigate through all the stressors that their journey will throw them, which hinders them from achieving the best.

Stress is inevitable, even in childhood, but there are different types of stress.  Healthy stress is a natural part of life and helps challenge adults and children to grow and develop.  In our current education system, healthy stress is often replaced with toxic stress.  Toxic stress occurs when we do not have the ability or coping mechanisms to deal with the stress of certain demands, which causes anxiety and the feeling of being overwhelmed or being too busy.   Toxic stress for students is extremely dangerous because this kind of stress can impair attention, emotions, sleep, and learning readiness. As teachers, it is imperative that we help students build their own toolbox of coping skills and strategies in order for them to attain or maintain a healthy emotional state.

One way to help students gain these necessary skills to navigate and overcome stress is practicing mindfulness.  Mindfulness is an array of different ideas and concepts that help with attention and awareness of present moments.   “By focusing our attention and controlling our breath, we can learn to reduce stress and optimize the learning capacity of the brain” (MindUP). Practicing mindfulness in the classroom with 30 some students can sometimes prove to be difficult for students who are used to being “on the go”.  This is where the idea of origami as a tool for practicing mindfulness can be helpful in the classroom.  Origami is the art of folding paper in different sizes and shapes and allows students time to slow down, think, yet still be active with their hands.

In this curriculum unit, we are combining various concepts and disciplines of origami. Using origami will give students the tools necessary to navigate stress as well as covertly applying math skills. Students will collaborate with fellow students and gain independent knowledge of origami and how it can be used as a tool to practice mindfulness and establish a healthy mindset for both in and out of the classroom.

When creating units for the classroom, it is imperative to find engaging lessons that help strengthen the student’s intellect as well as their social and emotional skills. Teachers are an intricate part of each student’s life and sometimes the role of teacher is just a big umbrella that encompasses many professions such as caretaker, counselor, nurse, etc.

Today, students and young children are faced with so much turmoil and trauma and are not always given the outlets to explore and heal.  They are witnesses to so much hate and vengeance, whether it be in their home, neighborhood, or broadcasted on the news. It is my hope that incorporating a time for mindfulness meditation within the schedule each day will allow the classroom to serve as a safe and unbiased haven where conversations can occur and where students can ask questions, share concerns, and grow.

In this unit, my goal is to teach mindful meditation practices through the use of origami by having students create various folds, both simple and intricate.  A recent AARP (American Association of Retired People) article entitled, “Boost Your Brain Health” discussed things we can do to keep our brain healthy. Activities that challenge our mind, expanding on abilities through a variety of mentally challenging tasks can help strengthen our brain (Doraiswamy). Origami is one outlet that provides both mental and physical stimulus.  Origami helps develop hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and mental concentration. Use of the hands directly stimulates areas of the brain. Origami is used in various therapeutic settings, including art therapy, stroke and injury, and trauma rehabilitation. During origami our hands become active and our impulses are sent to the brain, in return using both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. When both the right and left side of the brain work together, tactile, motor and visual areas of the brain work come to light as well as memory, non-verbal thinking, attention, and imagination work simultaneously by the brain’s when exploring Origami.

Origami allows students the opportunity to solve something that does not have a definite answer or can be completed using various different steps. Through persevering and the use of spatial visualization skills using hands-on learning. Such skills allow children to comprehend, characterize, and construct their own vernacular for the world around them.” (Hinders, Dana) Emotional satisfaction is a byproduct of the work as the students will watch a piece of paper transform into a new creation. Many identify the process of folding paper, a form of “relaxation”.

Although this unit will focus on students using origami as a therapeutic tool to grow emotionally, paper folding will challenge students at the cognitive level as students follow instructions, learning new skills and activities. Researchers have found that students who use origami perform better in mathematics. In some ways, it is an untapped resource for supplementing math instruction and can be can easily be related to the content areas of geometry and fractions, while challenging and enhancing students thinking and problem solving skills and especially the mathematical practices.  In addition to math, origami is a great way to merge science, technology, engineering, art, and math all together: STEAM.

This unit is intended for students in Grade 6.  This sixth grade is an inclusion classroom with 30 students.  The students cycle once in the first half of the day.  One sixth grade teacher teaches literacy and social studies, while I teach science and math.  The students have a 45- minute lunch, along with a 45- minute prep in the morning.  (Preps include music, computer, gym, and art). This will serve as a year-long activity that students will complete on Fridays after lunch and recess.  Within this unit, I have incorporated the beginning activities to introduce this new routine of origami as tool to mindful meditation.  The activities are focused on setting goals, releasing fears, and monitoring progress both in the classroom and in life.

The Objectives of the unit will include the following:

• Students will be introduced to origami as a tool to use for mediation in order to strengthen the idea of mindfulness.
• Students will be able to create a letter to their future selves in order to explore their feelings, values, and growth.
• Students will be able to use their origami activities in order to choose a project they would like to focus on for the next few weeks. Students will have to identify the purpose of the origami and how it was used in history or how it is used today.
• Students will be able to identify fears that hinder them from a growth mindset and fold them into the individual modules in order to create a butterfly ball, so that students can let their fears “flutter to the floor”.
• Students will be able to write a letter to a fellow classmate in order to promote positivity and understanding of others feelings.

Students will be able to identify two positive things that have happened during the week IOT create two star pieces for their origami buckyball.

Origami

Origami is simply known as the art of paper folding, which has been around for centuries.  Initially, origami was known as orikata, which specifically can be broken into the following, “oru”, which means fold, and “kami”, which means paper.  It wasn’t until 1880 that paper folding was given the title origami. Origami uses a small number of folds, mountain and valley folds, but can also be combined in many ways to make intricate designs.

The earliest traditions of Origami are found within the Japanese culture.  It is believed that the concept of folding paper most likely came to light after the invention of paper.

Effects of Origami in the Classroom

There has been a great deal of research on the positive effects when origami is introduced into the classroom.  Researchers show that the art of origami is a valuable method to develop vital and necessary skills, such as behavioral skills, cooperative learning, skills necessary for mathematics, and cognitive development.

The actual folding process, allows children to use their hands dexterously to follow a specific set of steps in a sequence.  Students learn to follow a sequence and experience firsthand how important it is that steps are detailed and in order to produce a creative and intricate origami figure.  Understanding this idea of sequence is a crucial lesson not only in math, but in life.  Child development psychologists are of the opinion that “motor activity in the form of skilled movements is vital to the development of intuitive thought and the mental representation of space” (Hinders).

Origami is also very important in helping students understanding three dimensional shapes, spatial reasoning, and symmetry.  Many of the folds in Origami represent symmetry because in most cases, whatever fold is done to one side is done to the other side. In addition, paper-folding allows students to create and manipulate basic geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, and triangles through understanding of angles.   Through paper folding students can better understand composing and decomposing and are able to analyze, compare and classify shapes.  Origami allows students to see and practice these basic principles in math outside the normal framework of a math lesson.

There is ample research that shows that paper folding, especially in elementary school is a valuable addition to help enhance and understand the curriculum.  Origami allows the students to have fun while incorporating a variety of learning styles that help children develop.  Students learn patience, perseverance and precision which are three very important skills needed to be successful in and out of the classroom.

Modular Origami

Modular origami is a form of paper folding that requires more than one sheet of paper.  Single sheets of paper are folded individually into a module and assembled together to form a larger and more complex origami structure. These modules are assembled by inserting the flaps of each module into the pockets of the other modules, which are created through the folds using mountain and valley folds. By inserting each module there is enough tension of the folds to hold the piece together.  Once assembled together, they can either form a flat two dimensional shape or three dimensional structure. The two examples of modular origami that will be found in this unit is the Butterfly Ball and the Bucky Ball.   “Butterfly Ball. A modular origami polyhedron that is similar to an octahedron with the triangular faces indented. It is called a butterfly ball because you can toss it up in the air, hit it and watch a show of butterfly-like pieces flutter to the floor” (Bardos).  The Bucky Ball is commonly used in the chemistry field and literally means, a hollow spherical molecule composed of a large number of carbon atoms. The Bucky Ball in terms of origami and based off of the carbon molecules. In order to create a buckyball, you will need 60 triangular folded pieces that are placed together by inserting one into the other.

Letter Locking

Long before our current form of communication, via text massages, emails, and phone calls important information was still needed to get from one location to the next.  In the past important information was passed discretely on hand-written notes.  These notes were often folded using elaborate folds in order to protect the information and keep the authenticity of the information.  This technique is now referred to as “letter- locking”.  “Letter locking has been around for centuries, and has been used by prominent figures as well as everyday people,” says Jana Dambrogio, MIT Libraries’ Thomas F. Peterson Conservator. Some of the famous people who were known for using this form of letter locking are Queen Elizabeth I, Marie Antoinette, and even the Vatican is known for keeping their secret archives in the form of letter locking.   Some of the earliest forms of letter locking are founded back to the 15^th century.  After researching these early forms of letter locking, researchers have discovered that there were unusual slits and sliced corners.  These abnormalities are indications that the letters had originally been locked with that same slice, by stabbing the slice into the slit and then sealing it with a wax seal. “Letters sealed this way could not be opened without ripping the slice of paper, which in return revealed whether the letter had been tampered with before reaching the intended recipient (Denny, Heather, and MIT Libraries).”

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is an array of different ideas and concepts that help with attention and awareness in present moments.  “By focusing our attention and controlling our breath, we can learn to reduce stress and optimize the learning capacity of the brain” (About AME). Being mindful, includes concepts such as self-awareness, self- management, and social awareness.

Meditation is a very common and important practice in mindfulness.  Mindfulness is a very simple form of meditation that was little known in the West until recently. One of the most common ways to meditate is focusing solely on your breath.  When you slow down each and every breath and pay attention to the moment when the breath flows in through your nose and out through your mouth.  This form of meditation, focuses on the breath entering and moving through the body, usually down to your belly button.  Focusing on each breath in this way allows you to observe your thoughts as they arise in your mind and, little by little, to let go of struggling with them. When you go through this motion and try to focus all of your thoughts on your breath and breathe alone, it is easy to realize that thoughts come and go and add a sense of clutter to your mind.  They seem to run through your mind as a never ending list.  Practicing this form of meditation, you can watch as these lists appear in your mind, seemingly from thin air, and work and focus to finding ways for them to disappear.  These exercises help one take a deeper look into their feelings to better understand them how to cope with them.

¨Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself. When unhappiness or stress hover overhead, rather than taking it all personally, you learn to treat them as if they were black clouds in the sky, and to observe them with friendly curiosity as they drift past (Penman, Danny).”  In conclusion, mindfulness allows you to catch negative thought patterns before they tip you into a downward spiral. This practice of meditation helps put you in control of your life, thoughts and emotions.

Mindfulness can help change and create tools and mechanisms that with help promote happiness and wellbeing throughout a lifetime.  ¨Scientific studies have shown that mindfulness not only prevents depression, but that it also positively affects the brain patterns underlying day-to-day anxiety, stress, depression and irritability so that when they arise, they dissolve away again more easily. Other studies have shown that regular meditators see their doctors less often and spend fewer days in hospital. Memory improves, creativity increases and reaction times become faster (What it can do for you.).

Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the idea that with effort and perseverance it is possible to achieve success.  Students who understand and practice a growth mindset are patient and believe their abilities will develop over a period of time if they are proactive in searching out opportunities and activities to gain knowledge and broaden their skills through challenges.  Students with a growth mindset look at challenges as a positive learning experience.  A growth mindset helps students gain confidence and believe that they can learn to complete tasks, solve complex problems, or grow their intelligence, rather than assuming they “can” or “cannot” do something based on their current abilities.

In contrast to a growth mindset, a fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence and various talents and skills are constant, meaning that their potential to achieve success is solely based on whether they have the specific intelligence or skills currently.  This fixed mindset often encourages students to give up and throw in the towel to challenging activities. Students with this mindset often see mistakes as failures. According to Kazakoff & Mitchell, “Students who possess a fixed mindset are often preoccupied with the notion of high performance and will seek opportunities where they can prove their skills while avoiding situations where their weaknesses might be revealed (“6 Tips”).”

Having a growth mindset is essential to lifelong success, and it is something that students can develop with practice.

10.3.6 Safety and Injury Prevention

1. Describe strategies to avoid or manage conflict and violence.

• anger management
• peer mediation
• reflective listening
• negotiation

M06.C-G.1.1.5 Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made of rectangles and triangles.

CC.2.3.6.A.1 Apply appropriate tools to solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume.

This unit will contain age- appropriate activities that will be included cross- curricular. Lessons will be differentiated to meet IEP learning goals and reach every student.  Students will access a wide variety of sources, including web, text, and videos in order for students to get a deeper understanding of origami and formulating a growth mindset. Students will complete hands-on activities in order to engage students and reach the many different type of learners within the classroom.   Some strategies I plan on incorporating are the following:

Practicing Mindfulness

Within the four- week unit, students will be introduced to the practice called mindfulness.  Mindfulness is focusing and paying attention on the here and now, the present.   Mindfulness will help promote an optimistic classroom and help students develop mindful attention to oneself and others, tolerance of differences, and the capacity of each member in the classroom to grow as a learner.  Through the practice of the mindfulness, students will gain insight into their own minds and behaviors as well as those around them.  Some examples that will be incorporated in this unit will be the following:  becoming aware of the breath, noticing thoughts as they pass the mind, feeling the various sensations of emotions, attending to the body at rest and in motion, practicing sending kindness to oneself and others. (About AME)”.

Journaling

Within this three- week curriculum unit, students will engage in journaling.  At the beginning of every social studies class, students will be given a symbol or a question about electronics.  Each journal includes a brief and general description, along with prompts and questions to help guide the students in creating their own thoughts and hypotheses.  The students will be given five to ten minutes to write freely in response to the prompt.  This strategy allows students to integrate their prior knowledge, as well as the knowledge the students have attained in the classroom.  Journaling helps document the students’ growth throughout the curriculum unit and it will allow students to record questions or interesting facts.  Setting this activity at the beginning of each lesson ensures that the students are reflecting and focusing on the topic at hand, so that they are ready for the lesson ahead.

Choice Boards

One of my main objectives as a teacher is to encourage and guide students to become independent learners.  Students need to take ownership of their learning process and the activities they complete.  Choice boards are an excellent strategy, which gives the students an active role in their learning by giving the student options.  For a choice board, the teacher first has to determine the objective.  Once the objective and purpose have been established, the teacher will choose activities, which help reach the outcome of the designated objective.  There should be a wide variety of activities that will inspire the many different types of learners within the classroom.  The choices will then be visually represented to the students, whether in words, or by examples.  Students will then be given the direction to choose one, or more than one activity that is engaging to their needs.  With this strategy, it allows students to choose a project or activity that they are interested in, which will result in a better product and comprehension.

Differentiation

In a classroom there are many types of learners.  Each student comes to class with different cultural backgrounds, academic backgrounds, interests, learning styles, etc.  It is important to differentiate the content, instruction, and student products in order to ensure the success of all students.  Differentiation is the matching of appropriately challenging curriculum and instruction with a student’s ability, interests, and learning styles through a variety of activities, strategies, and material (“Differentiation”). In this curriculum unit, all students will be learning the same content, but each student’s needs will be addressed throughout the unit.  Students will show their understanding in a variety of ways that is personal to their needs.  Lessons will ensure to challenge students through tiered activities and higher order questioning.  With planning, differentiation will help each child accelerate as a life- long learner, while reaching the goal of each objective for the unit.

Think Pair Share

The Think-Pair-Share strategy is designed to differentiate instruction by providing students time for creating their own thoughts and conclusions about a topic.  It allows time for students to formulate questions or findings that might have.   After students were given a few minutes to independently think, then they turn to their partner/buddy and share their thoughts.  The partners have a meaningful discussion where they are being active learners. “This learning strategy promotes classroom participation by encouraging a high degree of pupil response, rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response.” (Read Write Think) Having students work with only one partner rather than whole class or group instruction, the students have more of a voice.  They are heard by their partner and are able to have a continuous and fluent conversation.  Being able to have this personal conversation about what they are thinking which increases their sense of involvement in classroom learning.  During this time, the teacher is able to circulate around the room, join in on conversations, answer questions, or just observe.

Activity 1

Time Capsule Letter (Setting goals using letter locking)

Time: 5 classes for 45 minutes each (Can be adjusted)

Materials:

• Paper
• Graphic Organizer
  • https://goalbookapp.com/toolkit/strategy/graphic-organizers
• Checklist to write a letter See Appendix A
• Video on different forms of letter locking
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32_JDoi5HGY
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-_5NlvZkq8
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0XOxS0ZQWI

Objective: Students will be able to create a paragraph letter to their future selves in order to explore their feelings, values, and growth.

Procedure:

1. Explain to students: You are to write a letter to your future self. I will return these letters to you at the end of the year. The purpose of this assignment is to do the following:

• To provide a record of your life and who you are now, with goals and expectations included.
  • To anchor in time your current views, attitudes, philosophy, and outlook on life and school.
  • To explore your feelings and opinions about a variety of issues.
  • To create a document that, years from now, will have significant value to you.
  • Your letter must be at least five paragraphs, five sentences each.
  • The following topics are suggestions.
• ME, NOW: my hopes, fears, dreams, intentions, goals, problems, concerns, likes, dislikes, joys, frustrations. What I like about myself. What I would like to change about myself. What I’m the most proud of. What I think about often. What bothers me? Who I am and how I would describe myself?
  • MY WORLD: a description of my home, bedroom, school, neighborhood, town; my favorite places to go; chores, allowance, pet(s), possessions, clothes, religion, current events;
  • FAVORITES – books, music groups, movies, TV, etc.
  • WHAT I DO: my hobbies, pastimes, sports, school activities, what I do with friends, favorite snacks and foods, chores, how I spend my weekends and vacations, special activities I do, organizations I belong to, etc.
  • PEOPLE IN MY LIFE: my family, siblings, aunts & uncles, grandparents, friends, best friend(s), teachers, boyfriend, girlfriend, who I like, people I’d like to know better, people I admire and respect, important people in my life, people who annoy me, etc.
  • MY FUTURE: predictions, what I want to do, my long range intentions, what I’m looking forward to; what I’m dreading; my goals, my hopes and fears for the world; summer vacation, high school, college, marriage, employment, etc. Use today’s date for your letter. For the inside address, make up an imaginary future address for yourself. In your writer’s identification, use your current address.

2. Have students create a graphic organizer to plot out their thoughts for each topic that is to be incorporated in their letter.
3. Have students create a rough draft of their letter. Remembering how to set-up a letter as well as their five paragraphs including each topic.
4. Have students revise and edit their rough draft.
5. Students will either neatly write or type their finished product.
6. Students will fold the letter using one of the ways they were able to watch through the videos.
7. As a class, make a time capsule that the students will be able to open at the end of the school year.

Activity 2

Butterfly Ball (Releasing Fears)

Time: 4 days (20 minutes each)

Materials:

• Origami paper
• Slides discussing fear (Can be used to have a class discussion on fears that hinder us from achieving success.)
  • https://www.slideshare.net/Launchyourgenius/10-steps-to-get-beyond-fear
• Video with directions on how to make a (helpful to teacher and students)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rftj1IBQpo
• Instructions for Butterfly Ball
  • http://www.cutoutfoldup.com/936-butterfly-ball.php

Objective:  Students will be able to identify fears that hinder them from a growth mindset and fold them into the individual modules in order to create a butterfly ball, so that students can let their fears “flutter to the floor”.

Procedure:

• Day 1
  • Show students slides to discuss fears.  Share with students fears that you have, whether it be a fear of failing, a fear of heights, a fear of disappointing, etc.
  • Think-Pair-Share: Have students turn to partners and share some fears that they have.  This will help students see that everyone is afraid of something.
• Day 2
  • Students will get 3 strips of paper to write their fears on.
  • Students will then fold their individual paper following the instructions found on the above website.
• Day 3
  • Students will work in a group of 4 to assemble the butterfly ball using each student’s three fears. (A butterfly ball requires 12 square origami paper folded together.)
• Day 4
  • As a class, discuss how these fears can hinder us from achieving success and inner peace.
  • Each group can then take their butterfly ball outside to release their fears!

Activity 3

Modular Origami- Buckyball (Positive breeds Success)

Time:  30 days (Fridays) – 10-15 minutes each day

This will serve as a mindful activity which will be completed every Friday of the school year.  I plan on using this as a moment right after lunch to sit down and reflect on the positive things that occurred during the week.

Materials:

• Origami Paper
• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BZGxwycUQ (Walks you through the process to create a buckyball.- Helpful for teacher and student.)
• https://origami.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-buckyball-from-folded-paper-with-origami-347543/

Objective: Students will be able to identify two positive things that have happened during the week IOT create two star pieces for their origami buckyball.

Procedure:

1. Create a routine for Fridays. Have students understand that every Friday after lunch they will have time to sit and think of all the positive events that occurred that week.  Share with students that it is easy to get swept up in the fast paced world and lose sight of the little things that breed positivity.  Explain that they will be given two sheets of triangular origami paper every Friday to write down two positive things that happened.  They are then going to fold those two pieces and keep them safe in some kind of folder or zip-lock bag.  (They will need to keep track of these pieces throughout the year so that they can then create their buckyball with all their 60 pieces).
2. Show students a finished result of an origami buckyball allow students to ask questions and make guesses on the types of shapes that create each piece and how they are combined.
3. Show students the video which shows the process of creating the origami buckyball.

Give students time to work on their two pieces of the modular origami buckyball.

[Please see PDF attached above for additional activities & appendices]

“6 Tips to Help Students Develop a Growth Mindset in the Classroom.” Lexia Learning, 23 Oct. 2017, www.lexialearning.com/blog/6-tips-help-students-develop-growth-mindset-classroom.

“About AME.” Association for Mindfulness in Education. Web. 20 Feb. 2017

Bardos, Laszlo C. “How to Make a Butterfly Ball.” How to Make a Miniature Zoetrope, Disqus, www.cutoutfoldup.com/936-butterfly-ball.php.

Denny, Heather, and MIT Libraries. “The Art and Science of Letterlocking.” MIT News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 23 Apr. 2014, news.mit.edu/2014/art-and-science-letterlocking.

Doraiswamy, P. Murali. “Boost Your Brain Health – AARP Magazine.” AARP, 2010, www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-01-2010/boost-brain-health.html.

Goalbook. “Graphic Organizers.” Goalbook Pathways, Encome Inc., goalbookapp.com/toolkit/strategy/graphic-organizers.

Harish. “10 Steps to Get Beyond Fear.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 18 July 2013, www.slideshare.net/Launchyourgenius/10-steps-to-get-beyond-fear.

Hinders, Dana. “Using Origami as a Teaching Tool.” The Spruce Crafts, 2 Mar. 2018, www.thesprucecrafts.com/origami-in-education-2540965.

Kawamura, Kenneth. “[ORIGAMI TUTORIAL] Ball Of Butterflies – FLYING EXPLOSION! (Kenneth Kawamura) || Kusudama//Animals.” YouTube, YouTube, 20 Jan. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rftj1IBQpo.

“Letterlocking: The John Donne Lock, England (1603).” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-_5NlvZkq8.

“Letterlocking: Triangle Lock, Europe and England (1560s-1700s).” YouTube, YouTube, 18 June 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=32_JDoi5HGY.

Penman, Danny. “What Is Mindfulness?” Mindfulness Finding Peace in a Frantic World, The Linen Theme, franticworld.com/what-is-mindfulness/.

“What It Can Do for You.” Mindfulness Finding Peace in a Frantic World. Web. 24 June 2017