Create a fun paper fortune teller to predict the future! This craft can successfully be completed by school-aged children and up. This kid origami fortune teller will keep you engaged and entertained. You are able to use your imagination and creativity to create your own fortune teller. Have fun asking your fortune teller questions and seeing what will happen in your future or friends’ and family’s future! Best of luck!
Supplies:
A sheet of white paper
Markers/pencil crayons/crayons
Scissors
Steps:
Before we begin, make sure your workspace is ready to go with all of your supplies placed on a flat surface. If you will need help cutting, make sure to have an adult nearby!
Step 1: First, you are going to begin by picking up your piece of paper and laying it down on your flat surface. The long sides of the paper should be on your left and your right and the shorter sides of your paper are on the top and bottom of the page. When your paper is facing this way, it is in portrait mode.
Step 2: To begin making your fortune teller, the paper needs to be in the shape of a square. That means that all four sides are the same length. Right now, it is in the shape of a rectangle because two sides are the same length and the other two sides are the same length. To help you make it into a perfect square, you are going to fold the top right corner down towards the left edge of the paper. It should look like you made a triangle.
Step 3: Next, you are going to unfold the corner to make it look like a piece of paper again. Now take the top left corner and do the same thing as before. Fold the top left corner down towards the right edge of the paper until the edges of both sides meet. Now, do not unfold the paper this time. You will see at the bottom of your paper, this created another shape. Do you see it?
Step 4: You will see this made a rectangle at the bottom of the piece of paper. This is where you will use your scissors and cut the rectangle off. The rectangle that you cut off is not needed for this craft so you can put it in your recycling bin.
Step 5: Now when you open up your paper, you will notice this made the perfect square, because all four sides are the same length! You will also notice the lines that you made when you folded the paper in your last steps. These lines will help you with the next steps.
Step 6: It is time to do some more folding. You will notice in the middle of your paper, the lines make the letter “X”. Pick any corner and fold it into the middle of the paper. Make sure the corner is in the middle of the letter “X”.
Step 7: Do the same thing for the other 3 corners. Make sure all the corners come to the middle of the paper. When you are done, you will see you made a smaller square.
Step 8: Next, turn your paper over and again repeat steps 6 and 7. Grab a corner of your choice and fold it to the middle of your paper. Do this for all corners. This will make an even smaller square! The part you see now is the inside of your paper fortune teller. You will know this is the inside of your fortune teller because you will see eight triangles. If you flip your square over, you will see four smaller squares and this will be the outside of your fortune teller.
Step 9: Flip your square back so that you are seeing the inside of your fortune teller. Now fold and unfold the square in half both ways. This will help your fortune teller to “work better”. By doing this step, your fortune teller will be able to work more smoothly and it will be easier to handle it when you start to play with it.
Step 10: You are all finished with folding and it is time to decorate! We will start decorating on the outside of your fortune teller. Remember, the outside is the side where you will see four smaller squares. You can choose different colors to decorate each square. Do you have a favorite color? My favorite is green, so I colored one part green. If you do not want to pick colors, you can draw different shapes, or different emoji faces. The theme is up to you! Make sure you write out the word of what you did. For example, I colored one of my outside squares green so I wrote “GREEN”. This will help you to play with your fortune teller later.
Step 11: Next, it is time to write your numbers on what will be the inside of your fortune teller. Flip over your paper so that what you colored is now facing your flat surface. As a reminder, the inside of your fortune teller will show you the eight triangles. Write the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 all around the paper. Each triangle gets one number.
Step 12: Now comes the creative part! Flip back your numbers and it is time for you to think and write some cool answers for the questions you will ask your fortune teller. If you need help with spelling, try your best to sound it out or ask an adult to help you. You will need to fill up all the spaces behind the flap of each number. There will be 8 different answers. Some answers can be “yes”, “no”, “of course”, “not likely”. What other fun and creative answers can you think of?
Step 13: Lastly, it is time to mold your fortune teller so you can play! This may be a tricky part so if you need help, go get an adult nearby. Fold all your answers down so you are able to see the numbers again. Repeat step 9 again as this will help you mold the fortune teller. After you have folded and unfolded the square in half both ways, you want to put your fingers in the flaps where you did your colors, shapes or what you chose to do and push them together towards the center. This will put your fortune teller together! Put your thumb in a fold and your pointer and middle finger in another fold. Do this with your other hand too.
Step 14: Once your fingers are in the right position, you will be able to move the flaps with your fingers like little puppets. First you open your pointer and middle fingers away from your thumbs. Bring them back together then you pull your right and left hands away from each other. These two movements are the ways you play with your fortune teller.
Step 15: Finally, it is time to play! Play with yourself or play with a friend. Ask your paper fortune teller a yes or no question first. A question can be “Will I get a puppy?” Then pick a color or shape. Flap the fortune teller open one way, then the other way spelling out the word. You will move your fortune teller once for each letter you are spelling out. Example: GREEN has five letters, so you will move your fortune teller five times. Next pick a number and count out that number by flapping the fortune teller open one way then the other way. Again pick another number. This number will now reveal the answer to your question! Open up the flap to the number you picked and it will read your fortune.
Have fun playing this with your family and friends!
~Made by Diana C.