A couple of days after I made my frogs, I found that Phillip West posted this pair of toads he folded.

More of Phillip’s work can be found on Flickr.

I made the Jumping Origami Frog first, which is a simpler pattern but perhaps more fun in the end.

Jumping Origami Frog instructions can be found at the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant web site. (There are tons of sites with instructions and patterns, but the UW site has nice illustrations for each step.)

This is a good pattern to learn if you ever find yourself trying to entertain young children with only materials at hand. If you have strong fingers, you could fold this one out of an index card (or one of those magazine insert cards), and the heavy material should give it much more “spring” or jumping power. Not only can you provide instant entertainment in the form of frog races and long jump contests, you may also get some “cool” points for being able to fold it in the first place.

I did the second pattern simply because it looks more like a frog. I also like that it can be inflated.

Classic / Inflated Origami Frog instructions found at a site called, appropriately, Origami Instructions. If you’re new to origami, this site will help because it has photographs to illustrate each step.

Both frogs were made from 5 7/8″ square Fold ‘Ems origami paper.