What you will need: Paper squares of any size. (If you only have A4 paper, you can easily transform the paper into a square by folding one short edge corner towards one of the long slides. You can trim off the additional strip and save it for another craft project!)
Please refer to this video if you need to follow some visual cues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-BIL6p1Te8
For today’s prayer activity we’re going to make origami hearts. Origami is the art of folding paper into different objects. True origami masters can make the most amazing things! But it can be pretty tricky. Today we’ll teach you how to make a simple origami heart that you can use to pray.
Step 1: Find a square of paper (Here’s how to make an A4 rectangular piece of paper into a square)
Step 2: Fold an ‘x’ shape by making two diagonal folds
Step 3: Lay the paper flat and rotate it to be like a diamond shape.
Step 4: Fold the top corner to the middle.
Step 5: Fold the bottom corner right to the very top.
Step 6: Fold half of the bottom edge to meet the middle crease. Repeat for the other half.
Step 7: Turn the paper over and fold the two pointy tips to meet the fold you can see on the back.
Step 8: Fold the two side tips in a little as well to ‘round off’ the corners. Turn your heart over and you’re done! It doesn’t matter if your heart is a little wonky in places, like mine! So long as you end up with a general heart shape, it’s fine!
Now you have an origmai heart, let’s use it to pray. When you hold your paper heart, who do you think of? Maybe take a moment to be still and think of that person or people.
You can use pens and pencils or crayons to write the name of the person you’ve been thinking of inside or outside the heart. You could draw them or draw pictures that come to mind when you think of that person. Decorate or colour your heart however you please.
Now you can make an origami heart, why don’t you continue to make them to pray for more people? If you have different coloured paper available you could make a rainbow of hearts. If you make a lot of hearts you could ask a grown up to help you string them together. Hang them up somewhere you will see them often and be reminded to pray for those special people in your life.