Fans and Planes

For church nursery I wanted to make something for the kids to play with and mark on with crayons if the urge struck. Coloring often doesn't last a long time with toddlers don't you know. I thought fans and planes were simple, fun and within my time restriction to do. But, I had never really learned how to make a proper airplane. Hence, another suprise fringe benefit of marrying Cyler was my Sunday morning origami tutorial.

1. Fold in 1/2 vertical, fold top outside corners to the middle line.

2. Fold top tip of triangle down the middle line to about 1 1/2" from bottom.

3. Fold outside corners to middle once more.

4. Fold tab underneath up.

5. Fold backward along the original middle line.

6. Fold down each side aligning the edges to a point at the nose of the plane.

7. Adjust the wings even, and hold the airplane from underneath.

8. The fans are pretty self explanatory--accordian fold and a staple at the bottom for little hands.

Social historian that I am (in part), I observed who played with what. Some kids just liked to watch the planes fly past them. They would giggle-and all loved the fan to be used toward them although they didn't really want to hold it themselves. I didn't see one boy want to hold the fan for himself, just girls--they just loved the feeling when someone else did it. There was one boy who LOVED the plane even though he didn't want to fly it--he wanted to HOLD it, possess it, specifically the yellow one. Make sure it was his to take home. Three of the girls wanted to learn how to fly the planes. They also wanted to learn how to make the fans work. They laughed and jumped with a plane in one hand and a fan in the other. I love the spectrum of these kids that defy lines that construct adult society--race, class and gender. My life calling is for now summed up thusly: "Work toward everyone having equal access to planes and fans."