You can make paper snowflakes all year long and save them to give family and friends as the holidays approach. They are a great teaching tool for your children or students too. I'll explain that as we go along. Let's look at the easiest way I've found to make paper snowflakes.

Start with a sheet of paper. Fold it in half top to bottom, and then side to side. Be sure to line it up as perfectly as you can so the edges and corners meet precisely. This will make your final flake look better. With a bit of practice, it'll be a breeze.

We call a six sided shape a hexagon. Do you see how this fun project is going to help you introduce some educational concepts to your kids? Snowflakes are frozen water, or water crystals. Water molecules are made up of an oxygen atom holding hands with two hydrogen atoms. When the water molecules get together in a snowflake, they form hexagonal shapes. There's an opportunity to do some research and go over some science and chemistry with your kids. Moving on though, let's look at how to get a hexagon out of that rectangular paper you have now.

Hold the paper so the loose corners are at the top right, and the center, which you've folded into a 90 degree angle, is at the bottom left. If you have a protractor, it might help. If not, eyeball it. You want to open it like a book, and fold the top half back at a 30 degree angle from the left side like this:

If you're using a protractor, put the little mark at the center of the bottom of the protractor (mine has a hole there) on the bottom left corner. Line up the 90 degree line with the left side  -the folded edge. Fold your flap back to the 60 degree line leaving a sharp point on the bottom left.

If you are eyeballing it, fold it back until it looks like mine, then fold the part that extends out to the left back, and line up the edges. Don't press the folds too firmly until you get them just right. It takes some tugging back and forth, but it is possible to get it folded into even thirds, and it gets a lot easier with practice.

Another way to get this fold is to download this snowflake grid pdf that I made, print it, fold it or cut it on the lines, and line your fold up with it.

Once you get it perfect, so the edges line up and the point is sharp, cut a bit of paper or cardstock to the size of the rectangle you get when you fold your paper in half and half again, slip it in under the two folds you just made, and draw a line to mark where you folded it. Perhaps another picture is in order here:

It seems like a lot of work, but once you have that little rectangle to slip inside your next snowflake to show you where to fold it, they move along rather fast. Here's the pile I've folded that I hope to find time to cut and share:

After you fold the top half in even thirds, flip the paper over and do the same thing with the bottom half.

We'll look at how to cut them on the How To Cut Paper Snowflakes page.