Do you remember paper fortune tellers?  Ask a question.  Pick a number.  Pick a color.  And your future is predicted?  This is the main activity of this lesson.

In the beginning of the year, I did this with all my first grade classes and it was really successful.  The PPT introduces the zodiac concept, has students learn and practice their zodiacs, and then shows how it is related to fortune tellers.  Then they make their own, and do a fortune telling activity with partners.  I've included some notes in the PPT, to give you a rough idea of how I did it, but I suggest you make your own instructional sequence for introducing and teaching about the zodiac.

The important and exciting part is the fortune teller.  The attached .pdf is the fortune teller I designed.  I wasn't able to print and cut perfect squares, so some students' fortune tellers come out wonky unless played with, but in the end, everyone can make a cool fortune teller.

Here is how you play the game with the fortune teller.

1. Student A asks Student B and "Will I...?" question.
2. Ss B asks Ss A their sign and then spells it out with the fortune teller.  One letter per open/close.
3. Ss B ask Ss A to pick a number, and opens/closes the fortune teller that many times.
4. Ss B asks Ss A to pick another number.  Then Ss B reveals Ss A's answer and it is written down.

They must ask 5 or 6 questions each.  Very fun practice!

Enjoy!

I used this lesson this week and it worked great (minus the kids who couldn't remember their birthdays :)). Thanks so much- what a fun idea!

Thanks for the materials. I used the paper fortune teller activity in my afterschool class and it went over pretty well (especially with the girls).

The level of my Middle School students is a bit low so I didn't bother trying to teach them all the zodiac sign names--just their own. I made a conversation activity for them to learn their signs. I matched choose 11 personality traits and matched 3 of them as appropriately as I could to each sign. I then printed cards (1 for each sign) listing the sign name, the birth dates and the 3 traits.

The students then had to walk around the room, telling their classmates their birthdays until they found the person with the right card. Hopefully that makes sense. Here are the worksheets and cards.

This should be great fun with my girls - thanks for the idea!