Origami Frog

The origami frog looks neat and can also be made to hop.

Start with a square piece of paper (green makes convincing frogs). Now make a square base.

Origami Frog

Next insert your finger in one of the pockets in the square base.

Move the pocket around to the front, then flatten and crease it.

This classic origami move is known as the squash fold.

starting squash fold squash fold in progress

Photo below shows one of the squash folds completed. Now perform the squash fold three more times...

completed squash fold

...until the piece has the diamond shape shown below.

Next fold and unfold the corners as shown, to make creasemarks.

all four squash folds completed corners folded to make creases crease marks

Next comes another classic origami move, the petal fold.

starting petal fold petal fold in progress

The next photo shows the completed petal fold.

Now perform the petal fold three more times (on the other three faces of the diamond), to create the frog base.

completed petal fold four petal folds completed, frog base

Fold the frog base down the centerline as shown. Then fold the lower edges of one layer into the centerline.

frog base folded down centerline edges of frog base folded into centerline

Now fold edge A to edge B as shown by the arrow.

The perform the previous three steps again, 3 more times, until the piece looks like below right.

edge A folded into edge B tadpole ready to become a frog

Now it's time to turn the tadpole into a frog!

I like to pre-crease the leg, then use reverse folds to create the two front legs (reverse folds are explained here).

creasing frog leg in preparation for reverse fold first leg reverse folded both front legs reverse folded

Now use reverse folds to stretch the back legs.

Apply reverse folds again, twice each on the front and back pairs of legs, as shown in the photos below.

rear frog legs reverse folded all legs reverse folded again all legs reverse folded last time

Now you'll need to blow where shown, to inflate the frog's body.

completed origami frog

You can make the frog hop for short distances by pressing on the rear of the body, then sliding your finger off onto the table:

using finger on rear of body to make origami frog jump origami frog jumped forward

O-ribit-gami!