HOW TO MAKE PAPER STARS

ORIGIN: The meaning of paper stars originates from a Japanese

folktale. In this story, a young girl sees a lot of shooting stars and
worries that if more stars keep falling, there won’t be any stars left in
the night sky. She starts to fold paper stars and puts them in a glass
jar, and some of her friends join her. The paper stars replace the
fallen stars, saving the night sky, and the girl calls them “lucky stars”
from then on!
There is also a belief that if you fill up a container with paper stars,
you can be granted a wish!
If you want to make paper stars, just follow this written tutorial along
with the video. We recommend you watch the video so you can see
each step, and these written instructions are great to use alongside it.

MATERIALS: A sheet of paper (in any color you want), ruler, pencil
scissors
STEP 1: Take your sheet of paper and lay it flat on a table. Using
the ruler as an edge, draw a line all the way down the page. You can
make the width of the paper strip smaller or larger, whatever you
prefer. An inch or half an inch is usually best
STEP 2: Use your scissors to carefully cut along the drawn line. If
you need help, ask a parent, an older sibling, or a trusted adult to cut
it for you.
STEP 3: Make a “knot” with the thin strip of paper. To do this, fold
the paper to make a “V” shape, wrap the left side under the right side
to make a loop, and feed it through the loop. Pull both sides of the
strip gently. It should look like a check mark.
 STEP 4: Tuck the short strip of paper that is hanging out into a fold.
If it is too long, you can trim it a bit with the scissors. The paper
should now look like a hexagon with a long strip hanging out of it.
STEP 5: Now wrap the longer strip around the sides of the hexagon,
making sure the edges line up.
STEP 6: You’re almost done! Once you have wrapped the longer
strip around and there is only a little bit left, tuck it in like you did in
step 4. Similar to step 4, you can trim it to fit into the fold.
STEP 7: Hold the hexagon shape and using your thumb and index
finger, pinch the points of the hexagon.
STEP 8: You made a paper star! Now you can repeat these steps for
as many stars as you would like. You can store the lucky stars in a
glass jar to decorate your room, or use them as DIY confetti!