Cootie catchers are a fun way to practice skills. These 17 quick cootie catcher printables are all free and just might spark some lesson plan ideas.
In the classroom there are times where we just need to find creative ways for independent practice to help students master skills.
These printables were designed by such creative people that I know you’ll just love them. I’ve found an assortment of reading skills, math and holiday ones too!
Reading / Language Arts Cootie Catchers
1. Dr. Seuss Inspired Cootie Catcher – If you want to teach about Theodore Geisel as an author, then you’ll like this free download. This cootie catcher has great quotes from classic Dr. Seuss books that are inspirational. {Free download}
2. Common & Proper Nouns and Contractions – These are beautifully created cootie catchers work on ela skills. I love the chevron background on the common or proper nouns free download. These are great for every 3rd grade student to use! {Free download}
3. -ED and -ING Endings – What an efficient way for students to practice adding endings to words. This free cootie catcher printable includes words like hop, tie, bake, wash, snap, jump and clap making it a good fit for young readers. {Free download}
4. Book Questions – You can use these for novel studies or guided reading groups. Have students answer questions about a book that are on the cootie catcher. As an extension activity, challenge students to create their own.
5. CVC and Word Families – Take your vowels or word families and create an inspired set of cootie catchers that are colorful and fun for emergent readers. You’ll get the step by step folding directions and find a neat way to write along the creases to make additional sets of words to read.
6. Speech – Take the speech sounds that a child needs to practice and write words with those sounds in the different sections. This fun way is simple and is great for partner work or at home speech homework. Change it up by using the words in a sentence.
Math Cootie Catchers
7. Mean, Median, Range, Mode – These photos and lesson ideas make me think of a variety of math skills that we can use cootie catchers to practice or review. These could also be taped into a math notebook after a lesson as a reminder and foldable.
8. Differentiation – Get great ideas on how you can differentiate practicing multiplication facts. Way better than flash cards and is great for additional practice after they understand the process.
9. Addition – Practice basic addition skills like single digit doubles. I think this is a great partner activity and works fantastically for self-checking since the answers are under the flap. {Free download}
Holiday Cootie Catchers
10. Valentines – Create fun Valentine gifts for classmates or to practice skills during a Valentine’s Day party in a fun way. For example, when students choose the word “baseball” they have to swing an imaginary bat while spelling a spelling word out loud before moving on to find out their Valentine message. Includes a boy and girl version – brilliant! {Free download}
11. Valentines Day Jokes – This one is a great gift for a teacher to give to students. These Valentine cootie catchers have cute jokes on them and are definitely fun. A great way to keep them busy during a holiday party! {Free download}
13. Christmas Jokes and Fun – This fantastic download from Jennifer will be a creative gift to give to students during the Holiday season. They will love the Christmas jokes and Christmas trivia in these 6 free downloads. {Free download}
12. Fathers Day – Give dad a creative present filled with coupons. Have dad use the cootie catcher to show what kind of dad he is feeling and then use the cootie catcher magic to reveal a gift like “dad gets control of the remote.” What a cute and clever idea for this beautiful, free printable. {Free download}
How To & Blank Templates
14. How to Fold & How to Play –
How to Fold: See all 13 steps all laid out in this great picture tutorial.
How to Play:
- Pick a partner and ask them to pick a color, animal, person or word that you have written on one of the flaps.
- Move the flaps in and out and side to side in time with the letters, spell out the word they have chosen.
- Open the catcher to reveal the inside information (word or numbers) and ask your partner to pick one. Count out the number they have chosen by moving the flaps in and out and side to side. Ask them to pick another number and count it out in the same manner.
- This time ask them to pick a third number and reveal the answer you have written on the inside flap.
15. Free Cootie Catcher Template – Here is a free blank cootie catcher template that students can use to create their own to extend and apply their skills. This will work for reading, phonics, math, geography, anything! {Free download}
16. Free Cootie Catcher Template – This free printable blank cootie catcher will work for the teacher or students. {Free download}
17. Create Your Own – Use Arthur characters as beginning points and then insert your own text. It takes just a minute and these are simple to create and then print. Limitations are that you have to use text only. {Free download}
Thanks to these fantastic teachers for sharing their printable and cootie catcher lesson plan ideas. They are fabulous! Feel free to grab the “I’m a Featured Teach Junkie” blog button as your creations are definitely worth the shout out.
More Lesson Plan Ideas
- Sight Words – write the words inside and read the chosen one.
- Social Studies (States and Capitals) – write the capital inside the flap.
- Story Starters – write the beginning of a sentence, include silly words or phrases.
More Creative Games
- 40 Roll and Cover “Bump” Cool Math Games
- 16 Spring and Easter Math Ideas {Free Download}
- 6 Dr. Seuss Inspired Math Activities {Free Download}
Leslie {aka the original Teach Junkie} loves learning new things to make teaching easier and more effective. She enjoys featuring creative classroom fun when she's not designing teacher shirts, making kindergarten lesson plans or planning her family's next trip to Disney World.