One rainy Yorkshire afternoon, I handed my youngest a newspaper hat I’d folded in about 30 seconds. He wore it for roughly 12 seconds before announcing it was “boring” and trying to feed it to the dog. Fair point.
So we upgraded it. We added tiny lift-the-flap jokes around the brim, and suddenly the hat was not just a hat. It was a wearable giggle machine. If you have paper, tape or glue, and a child who enjoys yelling “READ MY HAT!”, you’re in business.
Time: 10 minutes for the hat, then 10 to 15 minutes for the flaps (depending on how many “just one more joke” requests happen).
Ages: Great for roughly 5 to 10 with help. Younger kids can decorate while you do the folding. Older kids can run the whole show and will absolutely demand applause.
What you’ll make
A traditional folded newspaper cap, decorated and reinforced, with lift-the-flap riddles tucked around the brim. Kids can walk around flipping flaps and reading jokes to anyone who makes eye contact. Consider yourself warned.
Fit note: Classic newspaper hats can struggle with teen or adult-sized heads unless your paper is huge. If you need a bigger hat, use a large sheet of packing paper, brown parcel paper, or even an inside-out bit of wrapping paper.
Supplies (keep it scrappy)
- 1 full double-page spread of newspaper (one big sheet when you open it flat) or a large sheet of thin paper
- Tape (the easiest) or a glue stick
- Scissors
- Markers / crayons
- Scrap paper for joke flaps (printer paper, old drawings, anything)
- Optional: stickers, washi tape, colouring pencils, a stapler (grown-up only)
My dad tip: If your newspaper is very inky, giving it a quick wave in the air can help a bit with smudgy fingers. The more dependable fix is lining the inside band with clean paper (I show that in troubleshooting below).
Fold the classic newspaper hat
You can use any standard newspaper-hat fold, but here’s the simple version we do at our kitchen table.
Step-by-step
- Lay the paper flat in landscape (wide) orientation. Smooth it down.
- Fold in half from top to bottom (so the long edge meets the long edge). Press the crease.
- Find the centre of the folded top edge by pinching the crease. Keep it folded. That pinch mark is your centre point.
- Fold the top corners down to meet at the centre point, making a triangle shape at the top.
- Fold up the bottom flap (the rectangle strip) on the front side, creasing it tightly.
- Flip it over and fold up the bottom flap on the back side.
- Tuck in or tape the edges of those bottom flaps so they stay put. Glue is fine for decoration, but use tape for any load-bearing bits that need to survive a child running down the hallway.
- Open the hat gently from the bottom. Pop it on a head and adjust the fit by squeezing the sides.
Fit note: For smaller heads, fold a little more of the bottom flaps up. For bigger heads, open the hat wider and avoid over-tucking the sides.
Turn the brim into a lift-the-flap joke book
This is the bit that takes the hat from “cute” to “I have performed three comedy shows today and it’s only 9:14am”.
Make the joke flaps
- Cut 8 to 12 small rectangles from scrap paper. About 6 cm x 3 cm works well, but anything flap-sized is fine.
- Fold each rectangle in half so it becomes a little door (a flap). The folded edge is the “hinge”.
- Write the question on the outside of the flap (front).
- Write the answer inside the flap.
- Attach each flap around the brim using tape along the hinge edge only, so it can lift. If you tape all sides, it becomes a sad little envelope and the magic is gone.
Where to place the flaps
- Best spot: the front and sides of the brim where the paper is doubled.
- Avoid: the very pointy top (it crumples fast) and any single-layer areas that are already flimsy.
- Spacing: Leave a finger width between flaps so little hands can lift one without ripping its neighbour off.
Make it sturdy
- Run a strip of tape along the inside of the brim like a secret headband.
- If the hat feels loose, add two small tape tabs inside to slightly tighten the sides.
- For extra durability, you can add a second newspaper sheet inside the first before folding. It makes the hat chunkier, but it can also make creases harder to press and the fit a bit tighter, especially on smaller heads.
12 kid-friendly riddles
Mix and match, or let your kids invent their own. Homemade jokes are often the funniest because they make absolutely no sense, which is apparently the peak of comedy when you are seven.
- Q: What has hands but can’t clap? A: A clock.
- Q: What has to be broken before you can use it? A: An egg.
- Q: What kind of tree fits in your hand? A: A palm tree.
- Q: What has a neck but no head? A: A bottle.
- Q: What gets wetter the more it dries? A: A towel.
- Q: What has lots of keys but can’t open a door? A: A piano.
- Q: What can you catch but not throw? A: A cold.
- Q: What has one eye but can’t see? A: A needle.
- Q: What has a mouth but doesn’t talk? A: A river.
- Q: What can travel around the world while staying in a corner? A: A stamp.
- Q: What has a thumb and four fingers but isn’t alive? A: A glove.
- Q: What is full of holes but still holds water? A: A sponge.
Small print from my household: If you include “fart” jokes, your hat will become the most powerful object in your home. Use responsibly.
Decoration ideas
Pick a theme
- Chef Hat of Chuckles: draw a big spoon and add food jokes.
- Pirate Pun Cap: add a paper skull, an eye patch doodle, and sea riddles.
- Space Comedy Helmet: add foil scraps, planets, and alien one-liners.
- Animal Antics Crown: glue on paper ears and write jokes in different “animal voices”.
Add a joke menu inside
On the inside band (where it touches the forehead), write tiny categories like:
- Knock-knock
- Riddles
- Puns
- Silence please (this category is fictional)
If your kids love folding paper that talks back, our origami joke teller is basically the hat’s cousin who does magic tricks at parties.
How to use the hat
Party game: Pass the Hat
- Kids sit in a circle and pass the hat while music plays.
- Stop the music.
- Whoever is holding the hat lifts one flap and reads the joke.
- Bonus rule: they must read it in a silly voice (robot, pirate, sleepy giant).
If you’re building out a whole laughter-heavy afternoon, you’ll find more easy ideas in our party games guide.
Quiet-time version: Joke Detective
Let one child wear the hat and whisper the riddles to a stuffed toy audience. Yes, this counts as “socialising”. The teddy looks delighted.
Troubleshooting
The hat won’t stay on
- Add a strip of tape inside the band to tighten it.
- Fold the bottom brim up a little more to reduce the circumference.
- If hair is very silky, a tiny piece of tape rolled into a loop on the inside can add grip.
The flaps rip off immediately
- Use two small pieces of tape on each hinge.
- Make the flaps shorter so they do not catch on shoulders.
- Place flaps on the doubled brim area, not on a single sheet.
The newspaper ink rubs onto foreheads
- Line the inside band with a strip of clean paper, then tape it down.
- Or use plain packing paper, wrapping paper (inside out), or a big sheet of recycled printer paper instead of newspaper.
- If you are feeling fancy, you can also run clear tape along the inside band as a quick “seal”, then add the clean-paper liner on top for comfort.
Safety and age notes
- Scissors and staplers: grown-up help for younger kids.
- Tape near hair: keep tape away from long hair unless you want an accidental waxing appointment.
- Little ones: for toddlers, skip the lift flaps and do big simple doodles. Older siblings can be the official “joke reader”.
More giggle crafts
If your house enjoys crafts that come with a side of groaning, you might also like:
- Family Joke Jar Craft for dinner-table laughs
- Popsicle Stick Puns for sneaky punchlines
- Funny Photo Booth Props for instant party chaos
And if you’re in full planning mode, our kids crafts guide is where I keep all the projects that survived my living room.
