Children have told Children’s Parliament that one of the most difficult parts of school absence is not being able to see their friends. Children can be excited to return to school to be reunited with friends, but some also experience levels of anxiety and worry about friendships. Our Fortune Teller activity is a useful tool for children to speak to others about what they need to build positive friendships, but it can be easily adapted for many different topics.
1 hour
It is helpful to prepare an example to show the children. Cut out the square shape and fold the along the dotted lines to assemble. For younger children, you might find it best to pre-cut their individual squares using a guillotine or scissors.
Bring everyone together in a circle to introduce the activity. Explain that in this session they will be creating a Fortune Teller to talk about different things that are needed to have positive friendships. Show them a folded/ready prop. Explain that you are going to put the following four words will be written on the four outer boxes – Empathy, Sharing, Trust, Love.
Explain to the children that in the game, you will ask someone to choose one of the four words. If, for example, the chooser picks ‘love’, you spell out the word, moving the fortune teller in and out for each letter (in this case, four times). The fortune teller will then reveal a series of numbers, which the chooser must pick from. Underneath the number will be a question about friendship for the chooser to answer.
Before folding, ask the children to create questions for underneath the eight number flaps and decorate their fortune teller (see image). Examples of questions:
Next, ask the children to help one another to fold the fortune tellers. Fold the square in half along the centre line. Next, fold it diagonally the other way so there is a cross on the paper. With the paper unfolded and flat again, fold each corner into the centre. Turn it over and fold each corner into the centre again. To form creases, fold it in half one way, and again the other way. It then needs to be formed into the final shape (see image).
Now, the children can play with their fortune tellers in pairs before sharing their answers with the wider group.
Click the button for the Fortune Teller template and printable activity plan.