Creative Writing Horoscopes and Fortune Cookies
Ideas for Fun, Creativity and Imagination in Language Lessons
Aug 23, 2009
The theme of horoscopes, astrology and telling fortunes is not new, and many teachers have used their own twist on it for lessons in writing, communication and pair-work. A reason that lessons with these ideas are successful is the fact that the subject is whimsical and not taken seriously; it therefore gives students license to be very creative, or even absurd.
Writing is always a serious matter, however, no matter how simple or fun the topic is, so the relaxed atmosphere lends itself to no limits of imagination, yet demands that the writing be precise, well structured and interesting.
Fortune Cookie Note Writing
Lesson Ideas:
- Each student writes a list of 10 fortune cookie messages they would like to find in a fortune cookie. For example, “You will be very rich one day and all your dreams will come true” or “Your hair will grow very long and you will win The Guinness Book of Records title”.
- The students share their results with the others in pairs, small groups or with the class. The pairs can be changed a number of times so that all the students share their ideas again and again.
- A follow up activity (that can be prepared as homework or prior to this lesson) would be to have students bake or bring cupcakes and have each of them put one fortune note inside. Cakes are mixed up and handed out to others in the class. Each student gets a cupcake and a fortune note.
Teachers should always check the notes to ensure that they don’t contain insults, rudeness, or threatening comments.
Creative Writing Using Horoscopes
Another fascinating topic is that of horoscopes. Most students are exposed to them in newspapers, magazines or online. While some people do take horoscopes seriously, others do not. However, many people are intrigued with them whether predictions have turned out to be true in the past or not.
For creative writing, this theme is wonderful. Horoscopes or zodiac signs include both the study of personality types as well as predictions. As personality types must be described, students will have to find suitable vocabulary to depict human characteristics; an excellent category of words for language improvement and expansion, particularly in the ESL classroom.
Lesson Ideas:
Pre-task activity: The teacher brings in some examples of horoscopes from the newspaper, Internet or magazines. Information about the zodiac and horoscopes should be presented to the class, and an open forum of questions and answers can take place so that students will understand what they are going to do subsequently.
- Each student lists the months of the year and writes down a character analysis (fictitious of course) alongside each month. For example: January: You are a person who builds on original ideas. You are strong and always strive to get what you want. February: You are always happy and easy to get along with. People come to you for advice. When all lists are complete, pair the students.
- Students tells their partners what their birth month is, and the other informs them of their horoscope.
- This activity ends when all the students have visited with each of the other students in the class and shared their information.
- The activity may be extended by having students, in an art class, design posters with information about each of the zodiac signs.
- The Fortune Teller Activity: An expansion of the lesson, or an extension into a drama class can be effective; students have to prepare to come to class dressed up as fortune tellers. Bringing costumes such as headdresses, balls that can be used a fortune teller’s prop, and other items can add to the atmosphere of the class. Using props in the classroom is always effective and memorable.
Horoscopes and fortune telling are intriguing no matter how seriously one takes them. The Internet numbers show that millions of people read their horoscopes daily whether it is for fun or otherwise. For language lessons, discussion and creative writing prompts, this theme serves as an exciting springboard for creativity.
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