You can do many things with a piece of paper….but sometimes you need a square shaped piece of paper and all you have a rectangular piece of paper. Here is an easy way how you turn a standard rectangular piece of paper into a square shaped piece of paper without using scissors or a ruler.
1. On a flat surface (like a desk, table, or floor), place the rectangular piece of paper in front of you.
2. Take the upper right corner of the piece of paper and fold it down to meet the bottom edge of the paper so that the folded part of the paper makes a large triangle. There should be about two inches of paper that is not part of the folded triangle.
3. Turn the piece of paper so that the part with the folded triangle is on top and the unfolded piece of paper is at the bottom.
4. Fold the unfolded piece of paper up towards the folded triangle so you make a crease in the paper where the folded triangle ends. Move your finger along this crease a few times, while pressing your finger down to make a really good crease. A crease is the line or ridge you make in the paper when folding it.
5. You will be tearing the paper at this crease to make the square piece of paper. To make it easier to tear, unfold the bottom piece and flip the paper over. Refold the bottom piece of the paper in the opposite direction. Move your finger along this crease as you did the first time.
6. Unfold both folds in the paper and place the paper in front of you so that the “bottom” piece is on the right side of the paper. Now you are ready to tear the “bottom” piece (which is now the right-side piece) of the paper off to make a square piece of paper. Because you folded this same crease in two different ways and pressed down on the crease, it should be easy to tear along the crease.
7. Place your left hand flat near the upper right hand corner of the folded triangle with your index finger pressing down on that corner’s edge.
8. Hold the upper right corner of the piece of paper between your thumb and index finger and pull so that the piece of paper begins to tear along the crease.
9. Move your right thumb and index finger down the edge of the paper and continue to pull the piece of paper so the paper continues to tear along the crease. You will probably need to move your thumb and index down along this edge at least four times to tear all the way.
10. Don’t worry if it does not tear straight down the crease the first time. You may need to practice a few times. Folding the crease in the opposite directions and pressing down on the crease helps weaken the paper on the crease. Sometimes you may want to press along the crease several times before trying to tear it.
11. Unfold the triangle shaped paper. You know have a square piece of paper that you can use to make origami and other things.
If you are left-handed, please follow these instructions by replacing the word right with left and the word left with right.
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