Do you remember Fortune Tellers (Cootie Catchers? Chatter Boxes?) from your childhood? I certainly do. It's the only oragami I learned that stuck with me into adulthood. My sister taught me how to make one and I brought it to my third grade class, giving me a short lived popularity that I will always remember fondly. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, see the video here. Our version had colors that you had to spell out and numbers that you counted to get your fortune. The fortunes were usually "You will marry a millionaire" or "You will have a baby named Bob". Whatever your kid brain could think of to put on your fortune teller was game. We had so much fun with these things.
Well, I created one. While I'm not the first to create a musical version of this game, I think I have a nice spin on it. I thought it would be fun to have kids read rhythms instead of spelling a word, and then sing the solfege scale instead of counting numbers. Finally you name the music symbol to pick your fortune. I had a free version of this up on my site for about a year while I lived my life and created other TpT items. My final paid version now has 256 unique fortunes that predict how music could be a part of someone's life.
Each fortune teller has a slot for 8 fortunes. I generally had a class and a half in my music classes, so I made 32 of them. To keep things organized, I made a spreadsheet and created 8 headings: Music Occupations, Instruments You Will Play, Social Media and Music, Music Genres, Local Music, Music Moves You, You Will Audition, and How Music Effects the Brain. I will tell you coming up with 32 fortunes for each of these categories was not the easiest and that's what took me so long to finally get the things up.
Now that we've got them, how do we use them in class? I'm glad you asked! I've talked about Kagan on this blog before (because it WORKS!!!) so imagine my surprise when I realized I never explained the "Quiz, Quiz, Trade" structure. Lets do that now:
- Have students "Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up"*.
- Student A presents their fortune teller to Student B and has them pick a rhythm, solfege, and music symbol until a fortune is chosen and read aloud.
- Student B presents their fortune teller to Student A and repeats the process.
- Students trade fortune tellers and say goodbye with a Kagan Cheer.
- Both part ways, put their hands up, and high five someone new that also has their hand up.
- Repeat.
*Kids put their hands up and walk around the room. When the teacher gives a signal, everyone freezes and high fives the closest person to them until everyone has a partner.
I have a whole year of working on this when I could, so I hope it brings you success. If it can get kids to sing independently in the music classroom, I consider that a win! Thanks for reading!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Musical-Fourtune-Teller-9481630
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