Highhill Homeschool: Twenty Point Origami Paper Star Tutorial

We made twenty point paper stars by folding thirty sheets of paper and then assembling them into a star.

This is a perfect craft for 4th of July and for Christmas too. When our German friends came to celebrate Thanks Giving with us last year they brought an assembled origami star, and directions and supplies to construct another star.

The first step in constructing the star was folding thirty sheets of square paper exactly the same way.

Here are the steps.

Fold the paper in half, then fold the top-left and bottom-right corners into the center. For assembly, it is important to fold the top-left and bottom-right in all 30 sheets of paper.

Flip the paper over and fold the top and bottom edges into the center as shown above.

Flip the paper over and fold down the right and left flaps as shown.

Flip the paper over and fold in the tabs.

Fold the paper in half.

Now do this 29 more times with the remaining sheets of paper.

After folding one sheet myself, I was able to teach the kids to fold the pieces. It was simple enough that they memorized the steps upon folding two on their own. It was however possible to fold a version with the gold strip slanting to the left and another version slanting to the right, but very important for assembly that they all slanted in the same direction.

Assembly

The first step is the trickiest step in the entire star. Basically, three sheets are assembled by wrapping the flaps around the adjacent piece to create a point.

Using two folded sheets of paper, open the flap of one (blue), and insert into the flap of the other (red). Look at the next photo for a top view.

Now add one more folded sheet of paper to create a point.

If the point is properly assembled, it will stay well attached and not come apart when held by any of the flaps.
The rest of the star is assembled by repeating the above steps to create each point. Therefore, add two folded pieces of paper to one of the flaps to create a second point. Keep adding points in groups of five.

I repeat, add points in groups of five - five is an important number! - Keep going until all the papers are used and the star is closed. That's it.

If it doesn't go together, count the points and make sure there are five in each group.

This project took around 3 hours to complete the first time and only an hour or so the second. I think making paper stars will become both a 4th of July and Christmas tradition in our house.