Mrs. Hanford's 4th grade class is making snowflakes. They do so by folding 8.5 by 11 inch pieces of paper and cutting to make an 8.5 by 8.5 square.
After folding it in half twice more, each student cuts shapes out of the sides and unfolds it to see what their snowflake looks like.
Unfortunately, as one student pointed out, real snowflakes are six-sided, not four-sided.

Is there a way to fold a piece of 8.5 by 11 inch (or you can use cm if you want) to make a six-sided snowflake?
If there is, the simpler the better. After all, it is a 4th grade class.
You only have a pair of scissors and your folding ability at your disposal.

My method for creating 6-sided flakes:

1. Fold the paper in half so that you create a crease perpendicular to the long edges (assuming the paper is not square.)

2. Create a small reference crease only near the folded edge by folding the paper in half again and pinching only near the crease created in step 1.

3. Holding the paper in front of you with the crease on top, fold the top right corner forward towards the bottom left corner.  Make sure the fold starts at the reference point created in step 2.  Do not crease this fold yet.

4. Fold the top left corner backwards towards the bottom right corner using the reference crease created in step 2 as the start of the crease.

5. Carefully align the top right part of the crease with the left fold and the top left part of the crease witht he right fold.  Once aligned, create the creases.

6. At this point you will have created creases with 60° between them.

To make the snowflake more symetrical, cut the excess paper from the bottom of the shape you've just made (assuming the reference poitn is still at the top.)  The two cuts you make will have to follow the lines of the left and right edges where they overlap the center section.

Posted by Erik O. on 2005-05-16 19:31:47