Dear Tabby:
I am a teacher with an embarrassing problem! My students are BORED. In fact, I can't even keep myself awake! What can I do to liven things up?
Signed:
No Fun Frances
Dear No Fun:
I have just the trick! I suggest adding a little humor into your classroom, and one way to do that is to introduce Funny Fridays into your curriculum. Use the time at the end of the day on Friday to have kids vote for their favorite funny book. They can come up with a name for their funny book award and design a sticker and a trophy for it. Awards often have mission statements, so this, too, could be another activity. Here's my quick list of ideas, but I bet you can think of more:
* start your Funny Fridays with different students telling a new joke each week, or ask them to read a funny poem out loud to the class
* take pictures of students making funny faces while reading their favorite funny books and post those pictures to a bulletin board
* buy glasses with fake noses on them and ask everyone to wear them during Funny Fridays
* create a mascot--like a puppet or a stuffed animal
* put on an outrageous hat or shoes
* play a funny youtube video on your Smart Board
* divide the class into teams and have them debate about which book should win the award
* write a letter to your favorite funny author or illustrator
* create a blog for Funny Fridays with jokes, drawings, and author interviews
* create a Reader's Theater for your favorite funny books
* put on a quiz show with facts about their favorite books
* write and illustrate joke books
You can also discuss humor techniques that authors use when writing their funny books.
Here they are:
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HUMOR STRATEGIES:
EXAGGERATION
Tall tales, like The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake and Adam Rex, use
similes and metaphors to accentuate the situation. Stories with silly and
exaggerated characters, like The Stupids,
by Harry Allard, are also in this category.
UNDERSTATEMENT
The main character reacts in a mild and
amusing way despite the crazy scene developing around him. When a group of real
vampires show up at Jonathan’s house in the book Wempires, by Daniel Pinkwater, Jonathan’s mother simply complains
that they are making a mess of her kitchen.
INCONGRUITY
This uses illogical pairings, in which
the real world rubs up against a fantasy world, as in Doreen Cronin’s Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type. A pigeon who wants to drive a bus is another example of incongruity.
THE FORBIDDEN
Potty humor falls
into this category. The book Chicken Butt,
by Erica Perl and Henry Cole, is an excellent example of what kids (and adults!) find funny. Walter the
Farting Dog also falls into this category.
RIDICULE, SARCASM,
DEFIANCE, AND IRREVERENCE
The Wolf in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
by Jon Scieskza has all sorts of nasty and irreverent things to say about those
poor little porkers.
WORD PLAY
Word play involves
the clever use of puns and funny names. In Lisa Wheeler’s book Boogie Knights, the knights all have fun
names, like Sir Ender (who just gives in) the lone Sir Vivor, and Sir Loin, who
cries out, “our honor is at stake!”
EMBARRASSING
PREDICAMENTS: Poor Officer Buckle doesn’t know what his dog Gloria is doing
behind his back in Peggy Rathman’s Officer
Buckle and Gloria. Tales of woe, like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst, is another example of humor at the
expense of someone else’s misfortune.
ANTICIPATION: In
Trinka Hakes Noble’s The Day Jimmy’s Boa
Ate The Wash, readers are lured into the story backwards. They know that
eventually Jimmy’s boa will eat someone’s wash in the story, and the fun is
seeing how the ordinary events lead up to such disastrous results.
SURPRISE: If the
reader is set up for one thing, it can be especially funny when something else
happens. In The Monster at the End of
this Book, by Jon Stone, Grover begs readers not to turn the page or
they’ll be sorry. At the end of the book they find…well, you’ll just have to
see, now, won’t you?
SLAPSTICK:
Readers will
quickly see why one monkey is quite enough in Jackie French Koller’s book, One Monkey Too Many. These imps get into
all sorts of trouble, including falling out of canoes and driving golf carts
off of cliffs. The slapstick humor
is accentuated by Lynn Munsinger’s wacky illustrations.
Most humorous
books use more than one technique. See how many techniques you can find in
these books! It’s a fun party game.
