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Lesson Plan: Senbazuru: The Japanese Art of Folding 1,000 Origami Cranes

Lesson Plan: Senbazuru: The Japanese Art of Folding 1,000 Origami Cranes

Created by: Alicia Booker, Lakota West High School
Senbazuru: The Japanese Art of Folding 1,000 Origami Cranes (pdf of lesson plan to print)
Virtual Japan Experience:Origami Website

Lesson Plan Background:

  • Demographics

    • Theme/Topic: Origami
    • Subjects/Grade Level: High School

  • Connection to Standards/Common Core

    • Ohio’s Learning Standards for World History: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CRISES (1900-1945)
      • 16. World War II devastated most of Europe and Asia, led to the occupation of Eastern Europe and Japan, and began the atomic age.
    • Ohio’s Learning Standards for World History: TOPIC: GLOBALIZATION (1991-PRESENT)
      • 23. Regional and ethnic conflicts in the post-Cold War era have resulted in acts of terrorism, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
      • 26. Proliferation of nuclear weapons has created a challenge to world peace.
         

  • Essential Questions 

    • Why are origami cranes significant in Japan?
    • Why would someone make 1,000 paper cranes?
    • How can folding paper cranes help people?
       

  • Learning Objectives 

    • SWBAT Explain the historical and cultural significance of senbazuru, the Japanese Tradition of folding 1,000 paper cranes.
    • SWBAT Explain how folding paper cranes can help people individually and be used to create community.
    • SWBAT Create their own paper crane.

     

  • Materials Needed

 

Lesson Plan Details:

  • Teacher-Student Interaction 

    • This Take-and-Go slide deck has materials to help a teacher introduce the Senbazuru tradition, the story of Sadako who made the tradition known worldwide, and how to make an origami paper crane.
    • There are also resources for if teachers would like to extend the lesson into examining community building through paper crane making projects and places to send 1,000 paper cranes if their students would like to. 

    • Explore the Senbazuru: The Japanese Art of Folding 1,000 Origami Cranes slides. 

       

Resource Support:

This lesson plan was developed by Alicia Booker, who participated in the NCTA 2025 Building the Virtual Japan Experience: Tokaiko, Origami, Temples and Shrines (TOTS) . The seminar was funded in part by the Freeman Foundation and a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant to the East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University. The content of this lesson plan does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Lesson plans are available online for classroom use worldwide and can be accessed at EASC's Resource page.