Origami Storytelling in primary education: review of the benefits of language and problem solving

Storytelling in primary schools improves children’s language skills by giving them a valuable opportunity to practice listening comprehension, a vital component of early childhood education. The ability to understand spoken language involves much more than just hearing words and figuring out what the speaker means by the words. Nonverbal cues of voice pitch, tempo, and tonality are essential for effective communication. In face-to-face interactions, the additional nonverbal elements of body language, gestures, and facial expressions make up 80% of expressive language. But how, in our multitasking, screen-dominated learning environments, can teachers engage and hold the attention of their distraction-prone students?

Why not try using the art of Japanese origami paper folding to help focus students’ attention during language arts activities? When an unexpected curiosity like origami is added to a storytelling presentation, the educational benefits for elementary students are increased. Origami models and other interesting objects add visual stimulation and attract attention, so young learners focus and motivate them to pay more attention. Another advantage of adding origami to stories is that the origami is created step by step. As the story progresses scene by scene, an origami model can also be built, fold by fold. When the story ends, the origami model is also created. This specialized storytelling technique is called storigami. Storytelling + Origami = Storigami.

Seeing and hearing stories illustrated by the progressive folding of origami models allows students to imagine the visual details of the scenes and characters described by the words, but also gives them experience in analyzing the symbolic representations of shapes and folds of paper that are combined with characters or actions in the story. The ability to understand how the shapes are related to the story and then to imagine the possible outcomes are key elements for successful problem solving, one of the most important goals of primary education.

How can teachers and other educators learn to use Storigami to develop problem-solving and language arts skills in their elementary school classrooms? Fortunately, a Midwestern educational publisher, Storytime Ink International, has published several collections of origami stories, such as Foldable Nature Stories: Quick and easy origami stories about plants and animals. This book and other folding storybooks describe how to use the technique, step by step. Storigami books are available at most public libraries and from various online sources, including http://Amazon.com/ and http://Storytimeink.com/