# What were these childhood paper creations called, and how do you make them? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 2, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501 "2009-06-02T20:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501/41 "2009-06-05T13:47:44Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > Paper Popper instructions > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > [Paper Popper instructions](http://www.metacafe.com/watch/452433/paper_banger_popper/) You had an extra http or something in your link, this should work now. Cool, thanks. Will have to try that out. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501/42 "2009-06-05T17:32:47Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > And that’s the first time I’ve heard them mentioned in about 36 years. 🆒 {Refering to hexaflexagons} OMNI magazine had one that you could cut out and assemble, and Piers Anthony had a book that used them as a plot device. I think that this was 25 years or so ago, because I know that this was after I got married. I was fascinated by the idea, and flexed my hexahexaflexagon until I wore it out. I love manipulative things like this. For instance, I bought a…thingy…made of beads and wire at my local science museum. It can be shaped into a ball, an hourglass, and several other shapes. ---
**Author:** ![4everkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/76d3ee/32.png) [@4everkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4everkid)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501/43 "2009-06-05T17:47:38Z")
> [@TheFaerie](#): > > We called them ‘cootie catchers’, but used them for telling fortunes. Ours used both numbers and colors. > > I think the age gap vs. object name thing is interesting. I’m 42 and grew up in KCMO. I also grew up in KCMO, but we called them Mock-mocks. But I have heard them referred to as Fortune Tellers and Cootie Catchers too. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501/44 "2009-06-05T17:47:44Z")
> [@glee](#): > > We used to make hexaflexagons. > [@Malacandra](#): > > And that’s the first time I’ve heard them mentioned in about 36 years. 🆒 Wow, yeah, we didn’t make any of those. We were just the ordinary kind of nerds; book-reading ones. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501/45 "2009-06-06T01:30:01Z")
We called them either chatterboxes or fortune tellers when we used them to tell fortunes. Sometimes, I’d paint eyes on the four outside squares and what would look like an open mouth on the inside surfaces. I’d call them “point symmetry monsters” and chase my sisters with them. And I remember hexaflexagons, too. They were pretty cool! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501/46 "2009-06-06T05:41:18Z")
I’m not exactly sure what name we had for them. It might have been fortune tellers, but that might be just because I looked them up at a later age. Certainly, one of the main purposes of them was to trick someone into an answer they wouldn’t have wanted to give. They’d end up with ‘you’re destined to marry [MOST DISLIKED BOY IN YEAR]! Ha-Ha!’ > [@dangermom](#): > > My girls call them both fortune tellers and cootie catchers, and regularly drive me mad with requests for questions they can fortune-tell for me. I use them for EFL and Eng Lit now, as a revision or starter game, but they’re useful for any subject as a fun way to revise stuff - use your imagination and you can adapt them for any subject. The categories are replaced by a general question about an area of the topic under question. I only mention this because I know you homeschool. I’d use them if I were teaching multiple subjects on limited resources, like I would if I homeschooled. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-these-childhood-paper-creations-called-and-how-do-you-make-them/498501.md?page=2)