Lily’s enjoying it so much, we thought we’d make a few more. It’s been years since I made one of these and I’m pretty sure we never called them Cootie Catchers but google the name and you’ll find a number of sites offering instructions. I thought I share some quick instructions here, in case it’s been 15+ years for you too since you made them.
- Fold a square piece of paper in half. Open it and fold it in half the other way.
- Take each corner of the square and fold them into the center.
- Keeping the folds in place, turn the paper over and again fold each corner into the center of the square.
- Repeat step 1 and fold the square in half and then again the other way to re crease the folds. You can now carefully slip your fingers in under the four corners underneath.
- Once you have the finished shape of the cootie catcher, you can go back and write on it. (Click on the next picture to see the whole photo sequence bigger.)
We added the colours red, blue, green and orange to the top four squares. Inside we numbered the triangles 1 through 8 and under the numbers we wrote funny statements and fun instructions for the player to follow like “cluck like a chicken” or “stand on one foot”.
There are so many ways to play with the cootie catcher. Perhaps the most obvious is to use it as way to determine a secret admirer with the names of possible candidates written under the numbers. It can be used to predict fortunes or be a way to spread some love with positive messages. The possibilities are endless.
Source: @annie.paxye.com