Paper Cranes Bring Lessons of History, Patience

Fourth-grade teacher Wesley Rea has started a tradition in his classroom at Fir Grove Elementary. Each fall, Rea reads “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,” a children’s book about a young Japanese girl injured in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. In the book, Sadako sets her mind to folding 1,000 origami cranes. Folding the cranes, according to Japanese legends, can bring good fortune, happiness or a long life. After reading the book to his class, Rea introduces students to the craft of origami, teaching them how to turn teeny-tiny folds of colorful paper into wings, a neck and a crane’s body. Last school year, Rea’s students set their minds to folding a thousand cranes and succeeded. Rea, who was first introduced to the book and origami cranes when he was a fourth-grader, said “Sadako” provides a cross-cultural experience to students. “I think it helps them get a broader perspective when it comes to worldwide issues and things that have happened in the past,” he said. “I definitely think that it instills a lot of creativity.” A shadow box is part of the crane display As the students moved on to the fifth grade this year, the cranes have taken their own journey. Rea submitted the cranes for display at the Douglas County Fair this past summer. And now the Oregon State Fair has asked him to share the cranes next year in Salem. But in the meantime, the cranes have a new home in the Fir Grove Elementary School library. Librarian Tracy Clements has been working to make the library an inviting place for students and staff. One of her goals was to create a display of the cranes created in Rea’s class last school year. The display was completed this month. Strings of cranes hang from a rod on one of the library’s walls. In the center, a shadow box holds the smallest of the cranes and a golden crane. In the book, these cranes were especially treasured. A copy of “Sadako” and an explanation of the display is also contained in the shadow box. Rea’s former fourth-grade students recently gathered around the display for a photo and were excited to see their work. “I like it like this,” said Brandon Molina-Sanchez. “It shows how many cranes we made throughout the whole year.” Alora Pitts enjoyed learning to fold the cranes and improving along the way. “I got really good, to the point I can make cranes as gifts,” she said. As a fourth-grader first trying to learn origami, Rea remembers giving up the craft in frustration because he couldn’t keep up with his classmates. “It’s only after I started teaching at Fir Grove that I realized that all it took was a little more patience to fold successfully,” he said, “which is a story I tell my students each year so that they will not give up like I did.” *** Story and photos shared with permission from Chelsea Duncan at Roseburg Public Schools. Fir Grove teacher Wesley Rea stands next to the display of cranes in the Fir Grove library Students pose for a photo with the display that features the cranes they folded as fourth-graders