I learned this at the Pro-D day we went to last year and I thought it was a great way to integrate math and art (sorry if you've already heard me talk about this). Each of the different 3-D structures builds upon the same basic unit ( the way a a single piece of paper is folded), and after folding 20-30 of them you pick it up pretty fast.

The number of units you need follows a particular pattern (sorry, I can't remember exactly how it goes, I think it might double each time??) The three structures I made are built from Sonobe units, the cube is made of 12 and the big one is made of 24, and I'm pretty sure the pattern continues as the size increases. The other structures, which are from the book, use different types of units. The teacher I learned it from said he always starts them before christmas, so students can give them to their parents as christmas decorations.

First Grade 7 art lesson

I did these name designs with my grade 7 class during the first week of school. I thought this was a good initial project because it allowed the students to leave their personal mark (their names) but it also creates very lively art. It required imagination on the part of the students in that they had to create a bug or creature that they saw in their names, and it was a great activity to emphasize contrast to make the image stand out. The students did a great job!