#schoolyard

What did kids at your school call this game where you fold paper and make a fortune teller?

In the US they are often called Cootie Catchers. In Britain, Australia, and some Commonwealth countries they are called Chatterboxes.

Older names include salt cellar, pepper pot, bug catcher, whirlybird, and in Japanese contexts sometimes paku-paku.

The basic form is an origami fold: a square of paper is folded into a double “blintz” pattern, then opened into four finger pockets. Children write colours, numbers, questions, dares, jokes, insults, romantic predictions, or “fortunes” inside. One child moves the folded paper back and forth with their fingers while another chooses options, eventually revealing a hidden message.

Historically, the fold seems to have begun less as a fortune-telling toy and more as a practical or decorative paper object. Origami historian David Mitchell traces similar folded forms in Europe, especially as salt cellars or pepper pots, with clear printed examples appearing in 19th-century European children’s books. A German children’s book from 1876 is one of the earliest known sources to depict the recognisable form. The same shape was also used as a small paper container, placed points-down so the four pockets could hold salt, sweets, or small foods.

Origami historians usually point to an 1876 German children’s book, Des Kindes Erste Beschäftigungsbuch by E. Barth and W. Niederley, as the earliest unambiguous depiction of the fully formed model.

Its life as a playground fortune-telling game appears to have become widespread later. Sources record the fortune teller/chatterbox use in English school culture by the 1950s, while the American name cootie catcher appears to have become common by at least the 1960s. The “cootie” name likely comes from children pretending the paper device could catch imaginary germs, bugs, lice, or playground “cooties,” before the same object evolved into a ritual of questions, numbers, crushes, and comic fate.

The city before morning,

when the lamps are still trying to explain themselves

and every building looks briefly unsure why it exists.

Somewhere above us, the weather gathers evidence.

Somewhere below, the streets keep quiet.

Time posted beside the notices. Recess measured precisely. 🕰️🏫