Paper Sculptures

I had one 6th grade class that was ahead of the rest, so I experimented with a new lesson I've been wanting to try. We looked at the artwork of several different paper artists (check out Peter Callesen's work) and then I showed the students how to create origami hats and fish. After they had made several hats/fish, they were asked to arrange the origami into a pattern of some sort. They were allowed to stack, rotate, and manipulate the origami in any way. After they had come up with a plan, they glued down their creations. It was a wonderful collaborative lesson that required students to use problem solving skills.