How To Make A Cootie Catcher
by L Wiles - 2008-08-01
Making a Cootie Catcher is a fun and inexpensive craft project that can also doubles as a game. It's a particularly fun activity to do on a rainy winter day when you can't go outside and play. It can be a great project for a group of kids.
What You Need To Make A Cootie Catcher
- Paper
- Scissors, crayons, pens and other decorating supplies - optional
- A flat area to fold or decorate your paper - optional
How To Make The Basic Cootie Catcher
Start with a square piece of paper. If you only have standard 8 1/2 x 11 paper you can easily make a square by folding the short side of the paper to meet the long side of the paper crease and cut away the excess. Unfold the paper.
If you want to add some guide lines to help you make great folds just fold your square in half and crease making a center guide line. Unfold your square and then fold in half the other way and crease. Unfold your square and you will now have a square piece of paper with some folds in it for guidelines.
Now fold each corner to the center. If you are using a template or printed paper start your folds with the printed side down.
Now you should have a smaller square with a "flap" at each side.
Flip over your Cootie Catcher. You will have a square with some fold lines.
Again, fold all corners to the center.
Turn over again and fold in half to crease, unfold and then fold in half the other way to crease. Unfold. You should end up with a square with little pockets at each corner.
Here's how your Cootie Catcher should look in real life.
Now put your thumb into one pocket, your index finger into the next, middle finger next and then your ring and pinkie finger into the last pocket. As you move your fingers back and forth your cootie catcher takes on life and appears to be opening and closing it's mouth.
Optional Decorating Ideas For Cootie Catcher
Now that you have your basic Cootie Catcher the next step is to decorate and personalize it. You can draw on eyes, a nose and mouth; even a tongue if you like. Use whatever craft items you have around, colored pencils, crayons, paints or glitter pens . Create eyelashes and hair by gluing on little pieces of string or yarn; or forget the glue and use
wikki stix
for hair and eyelashes. If you have a group of kids, just spread out all kinds of decorating supplies and let 'em go crazy. Anything goes, the main ingredient here is imagination and kids have no shortage of imagination.
Here's a template you can use to get you started. Click the image for a larger view. Click here for a printable version of a Cootie Catcher Face Layout. Note: The printed template is designed with a little extra room around the edges for better printing. If you use the printed template simply cut around the outside border and start your folds. Remember to start your folding with the printed side face down.
Optional Game Ideas For Cootie Catcher
Another option for Cootie Catchers is to use them in a variety of different games. There are many variation but one version is sort of like the magic 8 ball. You have a person ask a question and the Cootie Catcher will give them an answer.
To do this you put various messages into the most interior triangles, you will have eight all together. The messages can be something like: yes, no, maybe, for sure, no way, who knows, ask mom, try again. On the outside, corner boxes, put a color or word and in the rest of the boxes put a number. See example and template below.
Have a friend think of a question and then choose a color. Open and close the cootie catcher up-and-down, then sideways, once for each letter in the color or word. Then your friend picks one of the visible number from the cootie's mouth, again open and close cootie the number of times that correspond to the number that was picked. Your friend now picks the final number, lift up and read the message under the chosen number. Whalla!, you have your answer.
Another Cootie Catcher game, which can be really fun, is a “mind reading” game of sorts. For this game instead of writing messages in the most interior triangles put something simple like a number, color or shape. Leave the exterior boxes blank so it is not easy to know the orientation of the cootie catcher. See example and template below.
Now open Cootie's mouth and let your friend pick a section. Now your friend tries to guess the symbol under that section. A correct guess gets a point. Play with several people and whoever gets the most points after a round of 10 wins and is the Cootie Catcher master for the next round.
For an added twist, substitute the simple symbol with a more complex one, like a red square with a number 2 in the middle. Adjust the scoring so that a player gets one point if they guess 1 part of the symbol, 3 points if they guess two and 5 points if they guess all three. In the example of the red square with a number 2, if a player guesses red and 2, they get three points. See example and template below.
Click the image for a larger view. Click here for a printable version of the Cootie Catcher Game 1 Layout
Click the image for a larger view. Click here for a printable version of the Cootie Catcher Game 2 Layout
Click the image for a larger view. Click here for a printable version of an alternate Cootie Catcher Game 2 Layout.
Note: The printed templates are designed with a little extra room around the edges for better printing. If you use the printed template simply cut around the outside border and start your folds. Remember to start your folding with the printed side face down.
These are just a couple of fun games you can play with a cootie catcher. Use your imagination and see what cool games you can create.