Origami Games for Kids Review

This origami games for kids kit is very different from most other origami books. It not only explains how to make origami, but it also provides a lot of ideas for games you can play with them! There are 15 interactive games your child/children could enjoy with their finished origami crafts. It is time to get them off their gadgets and start enjoying some creative, made-up games!

The kit comes with 48 sheets of coloured folding papers (22.5 cm by 17.5 cm), 75 stickers to decorate the finished models and step-by-step instructions. It only takes a few minutes to fold up each game piece, and then you can use them to play the following exciting games:

• Balancing Act—Who can keep the spinning wing balanced on the pyramid longer?
• Basket Bombs—Shoot the ball through the hoop using the catapult!
• Bowl ‘Em Over—How many bowling pins can you knock down at one time?
• Can You Top This?—Build a tower of triangle chips as high as you can!
• Chip Toss—How many triangle chips can you juggle between two inverted pyramids?
• Fill ‘Er Up—Who can flip the most balls into the box using the dragon’s nose?
• Football—Scoot the football in between the goal posts to score!
• Frog Olympics—Spring the frog into, over or on top of the box!
• Ghost Dodgers—Can you slide a triangle chip under the ghost without knocking it over?
• Leap Frog—Keep the leaping frog leaping as long as possible!
• Pick Up Chips—Carefully remove the triangle chips one at a time without jostling the adjacent ones!
• Slay the Dragon—Take turns launching footballs at the dragon on the goal post until he’s knocked down!
• Snap Dragon—Slide a penny under your opponent’s dragon without getting “pinched!”
• Stormy Seas—Who can blow the sailboat from one end of the path to the other in the shortest time?
• Timber!—Stack as many sheets as possible on top of the “tree” before it falls over!

Some of the crafts don’t make sense until you read the play ideas (in the second half of the book) and sometimes you have to combine a couple of crafts together to play the game. For example, the wing and pyramid craft. Also, I do find there are a few crafts that need a much stronger and thicker paper than the colourful sheets provided as the paper does lose its rigidity after playing with it for some time.

Some of the games will appeal to children of all ages and personalities but some might be too easy. Nevertheless, origami engages children’s minds with the physical world—allowing them to make discoveries and solve problems. Research shows that origami stimulates the logical and creative sides of the brain, so both zones are actively engaged when folding. It also teaches the basics of geometry and has concrete benefits for developing minds. It is available to buy from Tuttle Publishing, online and Amazon. Do check out our review on Super Cute Origami and Origami Fish & Other Sea Creatures.

Disclosure: I received this set from the publisher for free. However, they have not paid me for this review, and they do not exercise any editorial control over my review or anything else on this site. We have included an Amazon affiliate link to the product. If you click on this and buy, we may earn a small commission.