How to make a cootie catcher

Remember Cootie Catchers? Do you know how to make them? I'll try to tell you how, and then you can look online here. This is how you'll know that it's sometimes easier to show something than to describe it.

1. take a piece of paper
2. fold one corner to the other side, so you've formed a triangle with a strip of paper underneath. Cut off the strip so when you unfold the triangle you have a square.
3. unfold the triangle and then fold it in half the other way
4. unfold and then fold all four corners in so that they meet in the center of the square
5. now you have a smaller square
6. turn the square over and fold all four corners in to the center again, so they all meet
7. turn the paper over again and fold in half
8. fingers go in the flaps on the back, which billow out to hold your fingers

Now you have a cootie catcher ready to be a fortune teller. Seriously, look here if you didn't get it. (Don't miss the really funny part about how to tell if someone has cooties.)

There are lots of ways to turn this into a fortune teller. I'll give you one and you can experiment with other ways.

On each outside flap write a color. On each inside triangle write a number, one through eight. Then unfold the flaps and write the answer to a question on each one. Some examples: yes, no, maybe, for sure, no way.
Here's how to play:

1. Have someone ask you a question, such as "will Tommy kiss me?"
   
2. Ask them to pick one of the colors on the outer flap.
3. Open and close the fortune teller once for each letter of the color.
4. Hold the cootie catcher open and ask the person to pick a number
5. Open and close the fortune teller that number of times
6. Ask the person to pick another number. This is the flap you open up for the answer to the person's question.

Fun, right? And totally kid powered. Who needs those magic eight balls?

www.littleacorntoys.com