It’s always nice for kids to celebrate cultural festivities and this paper fortune cookies tutorial is perfectly timed for Chinese New Year.

The kids will enjoy writing their own fortunes or you can check out Chinese fortune cookie quotes for some inspiration. What’s great about this activity is that it can be used for Valentines Day, weddings, birthdays or even as a fun way to pop a little note into the kids lunchbox as a surprise!

• Cut paper strips approximately 1cm x 15cm and write a fortune on each strip. Alternatively insert the messages into a table in a Word document to make them easy to cut out once printed.

• Prepare your paper circles by using a round object such as a bowl or DVD. Outline the circle with a pencil and remember the size of the circles determines the size of your fortune cookies. We found that a 12cm bowl worked perfectly.

• Use scissors to cut out each circle.

• Place the paper circle in front of you with the patterned side face down. Place the paper fortune in the centre of the circle.

• Fold the paper circle in half but do not make a hard crease in the circle, just gently fold the bottom up to meet the top and hold between your fingers.

• Hold the circle as shown and take the outer edges and pull them down to meet each other. You may need to use your index finger to push the centre of the circle when pulling the ends together.

• Place a glue dot (or a dab of glue) between the ends and press together to hold. If using glue then hold together until it’s dried.

Package all your fortune cookies together and you have a fun and sweet way to celebrate!