On the 11th of April our pop-up shop took part in the Norfolk Spring Fling and we had a fantastic time. We offered two fun activities on our stall and one of them was folding newspaper into small paper pots to be used for growing seedlings and to be planted directly into the soil once the plant is ready.
Despite the freezing wind we had great fun with both kids and parents folding newspaper sheets into little pots. As with the seed balls, I promised the parents that I would upload the instructions on our website so they could access them over the Easter holidays.
I also thought that it would be nice to share these activities with anyone visiting our website 😊.
NOTE: the instructions look long and complicated but please do not be put off by it as once you have folded a couple it will become super easy and a great activity for young and old alike.
1) Cut the newspaper sheet in half on the middle fold. You will only need one half of the full sheet. Place the sheet in front of you so that the longest side is horizontal
2) Fold the sheet in half from left to right
3) Fold the paper from bottom to top
4) Fold the sheet again from left to right
5) The newspaper sheet will now look like a little book. Take the bottom right-hand corner of the front flap and pull it towards you. By doing so it will open like a little pocket that you can fold flat and make a triangle shape. It will look a bit like a paper hat
6) Now turn the newspaper over and do the same on the other side but this time you need to pick the bottom left corner. This step can be a little tricky as the inside folds of the paper move apart
7) Now fold the left hand side 'flap' of paper to the right so that you can see one uninterrupted triangle
8) Now turn the newspaper over and do the same on the other side so that you achieve a shape like the one in the picture below
9) The paper will look like this from above if it has been folded correctly
10) Now fold each of the front flaps into the centre line
12) Fold the two flaps in half again, into the centre line. It will start to look like a paper airplane
13) Turn the sheet over and do repeat the 'double' folding on the other side. It should then look like the image below
14) Finally, fold the top flap down towards you along the newspaper line
15) Ans fold the same way on the other side
16) If you hold the flaps and pull gently you should be able to open your pot. You can also use your fingers to push the inside out and make a flat bottom
17) And here is your pot!!
The flaps can be folded inside the pot but please don't cut them as they help strengthening the structure of the pot. You'll see that once the pot has been filled with soil it is pretty stable and will last several weeks.
Thanks to https://treadingmyownpath.com for the inspiration!
