I remember when I was a little girl, my mother showed me how to tie a Kleenex tissue on the end of a length of string, and use that to play with the cat. Our cat just loved trying to catch the tissue as I bounced and dragged it across the floor. As she would get close, I would yank the string, and the kleenex would fly through the air as my cat jumped and tried hard to catch it.
I have used this with many cats over the years, and they all seem to be fascinated by it, and act like it was a real bird or something they badly want to be able to catch.