Origami Jumping Frog Craft and Kinetic Energy Stem Activity

This origami jumping frog is such a cute craft to make. Perfect for kids of all ages particularly older kids like preschoolers and elementary age kids. This origami jumping frog is a budget-friendly craft and activity that is not only fun, but educational as it is also a STEM activity. Learn about kinetic energy with this origami jumping frog whether you’re at home or in the classroom!

Origami paper frogs that teach children kinetic energy. — This origami jumping frog is seriously the coolest! A craft you can play with.

Origami Jumping Frog

How cute is this origami jumping frog? I remember making these when I was a kid. They’re easy to make with our step by step guide and even more fun to play with. Plus, you can use this origami jumping frog as a lesson not only learning about origami, but as a STEM activity learning about kinetic energy while practicing fine motor skills. The best part is, your kids will never realize they’re learning!

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What Is Origami?

Origami is the act of folding paper. It literally means “to fold paper” in Japanese. There are different types of origami like:

Traditional
Modular
Boxes
Golden Venture Folding
Pure

But origami originally started in 1160 BC. Cool huh?

Related: Try making these cute origami penguins!

Video: Origami Jumping Frog

Supplies You Will Need To Make This Jumping Frog

You won’t need a lot to create these cute jumping frogs for this kinetic energy activity for kids.

You’ll need to a rectangle piece of paper that needs to be 8 inches wide and 4 inches across.

How To Make This Origami Jumping Frog

Step 1:

Fold your paper in half and then fold it in half again. These lines will be your guide for the rest of the craft. You will then bring the sides to the center making a right angled triangle. You will then unfold it and repeat on the other side.

Step 2

When it is unfolded you should see X’s on each half of the paper.

Green paper being folded by little hands in half, a triangle, the a diamond before it is opened up. — We start by making some basic folds.

Step 3:

Pinch the top and the bottom of your triangles and then you fold the paper in on itself. Once you have done this to both sides you will be left with a triangle.

Step 4

You will take the flaps of the triangles you made and fold them up to the corner. Do the same on the other side.

Fold the green frog until you have a folded square — We’re going to continue folder until we end with a square.

Step 5:

Flip your paper over and then you will bring the sides of the square (that do not have the little squares) to line up in the center of your square. The fold will look kind of like a paper airplane.

Step 6

Turn your paper over and fold your flaps in the little squares out. These are going to be the legs of your frog! Now, bend the non-pointy side up to make a crease. You will have to have this line for the next step.

Step 7

On the airplane side, which is the non-pointy side, fold it up to the points. As you are doing that, two pockets will form. Put each side of the airplane, or the airplane flaps, into the pockets that formed.

Fold the square making more lines and open up the flaps. — We’re getting closer to finishing this kinetic energy craft! We’re going to be making more folds and transforming our squares into a more frog shape.

Stem Activity Notes:

This is really when the science and STEM activity comes into play.

With every single fold you make you are making your frog thicker and thicker. When fold the thick parts over on itself, the paper wants to fix itself, that being flat.

With the different folds you did, you created a spring on the back of the frog. Once you push it down on your frog’s back you depress the spring where energy is then being stored.

Once you let go, BOING! Your from jumps into the air.

We're folding it a little more nearly finished with our STEM activity craft. — You can see our jumping frog is nearly finished!

Kinetic Energy – Physics Experiment For Kids

STEM activities refer to any process that kids can do integrating concepts from science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEM activities are great for helping kids bring scientific principles to life.

Today’s exploration into physics was inspired by Sylvan Learning. We fold paper to create potential energy and watch as it transforms into a kinetic jump – all with origami.

Sylvan Learning has a new after school enrichment programs titled Sylvan EDGE.

As part of that program kids do hands-on STEM projects after school. Kids can build robots from Legos, learn how to apply software to real-life scenarios, they can explore coding and even create their own video games or animated stories.

Instructions

Fold your paper in half and then fold it in half again. These lines will be your guide for the rest of the craft.
You will then bring the sides to the center making a right angled triangle.
You will then unfold it and repeat on the other side.
When it is unfolded you should see X’s on each half of the paper.
Pinch the top and the bottom of your triangles and then you fold the paper in on itself. Once you have done this to both sides you will be left with a triangle.
You will take the flaps of the triangles you made and fold them up to the corner.
Do the same on the other side.
Flip your paper over and then you will bring the sides of the square (that do not have the little squares) to line up in the center of your square. The fold will look kind of like a paper airplane.
Turn your paper over and fold your flaps in the little squares out. These are going to be the legs of your frog!
Now, bend the non-pointy side up to make a crease. You will have to have this line for the next step.
On the airplane side, which is the non-pointy side, fold it up to the points. As you are doing that, two pockets will form.
Put each side of the airplane, or the airplane flaps, into the pockets that formed.

Notes