Comedy is a Spice of Kindergarten
By Alexis Kilgore
Westwood Elementary School
Contents of Curriculum Unit:
Overview
Rationale
Objectives
Strategies
Classroom Activities
Annotated Bibliography/Resources
Appendices
Standards
Overview
The main goal of this curriculum unit is to make known to kindergarten students that learning can be fun. Preparing a variety of age-appropriate and comedic classroom lessons and activities for the students and serving them with their existing curriculum will take part in accomplishing this task. These new items on their menu will combine an excitement for fresh flavors along with the delight of being able to enjoy learning experiences in a more relaxed atmosphere. This curriculum unit aims to prepare a selection of unique ideas that will compliment the curriculum already in place. Teachers can season to the taste of their own classrooms. The unit will show both teachers and students that comedy is a tasty treat and humor is acceptable etiquette for the kindergarten classroom.
At
first, this dish of information might be hard to swallow.
A mere sprinkling of some comedy onto the curriculum is not substantial
enough for the hearty kindergarten appetite. This curriculum unit also serves
some rich textured educational items along with a hint of comedic flavor.
The unit aims to prepare some insight into the intellectual elements of
comedy that are often overlooked. These
lessons and activities will offer students skills to sink their teeth into.
These skills will help them to objectively view themselves and various
situations. This connection between
laughing and learning will make a wonderful accompaniment to their course of
study.
Gather your utensils and enjoy a sampling of these items. I hope they suit your tastes!
In Webster’s Dictionary, comedy is defined as 1. A humorous play, etc. with a non-tragic ending 2. An amusing event. Along with this definition, kindergarten can also be viewed as an amusing event in a child’s life. Students can learn through their own type of humorous play with hopes of arriving at a non-tragic ending, such as being teased or being held back.
Kindergarten,
being one of students’ first experiences with school, is an opportune time to
project a positive image of both the teaching and learning processes.
Students at this age are beginning to understand what it means to be
oneself and part of a group. This
is a sensitive area of social development, which may be more successfully
addressed with a comedic vision in mind. Students
should become comfortable laughing within a group as well as laughing at
oneself. This idea coincides with
yet another way of defining comedy, which is the humorous element in literature,
life, or an incident. In
kindergarten, literature and life are topics discussed on a daily basis.
Additionally, many incidents occur, some of which would benefit from
being viewed objectively, with a humorous rather than a serious tone.
A persons’ background is their prior training and experiences in
life. Kindergarten students have
backgrounds and each child’s background varies.
In education, parents and guardians are viewed as children’s’ first
teachers. They are responsible for
providing children with the training and experiences that they value.
In relation to comedy and humor, parents take it upon themselves to
include their children or exclude them from various experiences.
For example, one parent might feel that when their child drops their ice
cream cone on themselves that it’s funny and they laugh, while another parent
might become angry and scold their child. The
quote, “different people laugh to different degrees in different social
situations,” fits well with this situation.
As with adults, students have various types of humor.
The parents almost set the standards for their child’s humor etiquette.
Etiquette is defined as the conventional code of good manners, which
governs behavior in society and professional and business life.
A student’s time spent in school is an equivalent comparison to their
version of a professional and business life.
This
topic is of a proper consistency for the students to taste and enjoy.
It is developmentally appropriate and it relates directly to the palate
of most kindergarten students. Through
my experiences as a kindergarten teacher I have learned many of the following
characteristics of students to be true. Some students mature faster while others mature more slowly
but all of these traits are generally occurring during the time a child is in
kindergarten. After reading about
these different personalities you can begin to understand how the comedic view
can benefit such important educational experiences.
Five-year-old
children play in groups, however most of their activities are done
independently. They will get angry
if another child bothers their materials but will share with them if they are
asked. They can be very impulsive
and will react without thinking. They
don’t easily see other points of view besides their own and can become
disagreeable if forced to try to see things another way.
They like to feel a sense of understanding and control over their
immediate environment. They feel most comfortable when they can prepare for
things in advance rather than having things sprung on them out of the blue.
Five year olds don’t fully understand the concept of right and wrong.
Instead they think practically in terms of good and bad.
They want to be good to please parents and teachers and do not want to be
bad because it makes these people angry with them.
Five year olds like to please and usually choose to cooperate if you are
very directive with them. They
often tell stories in fun, to fool or tease somebody.
.
Six
year olds show more of an interest in actual group play.
They have a desire to be the first and the best.
They often have difficulty getting along with others so diplomacy is
needed to keep everyone happy. They
are very aware of good and bad and want to be good.
They can be aggressive with other children.
Some fight with peers at school while others are scared by physical
aggression and can be teased by other children.
Children who are aggressive often enjoy hearing stories about other
children who get in trouble because they are not so nice.
Six year olds crave attention from parents and teachers.
They view praise as very important and need to know what is expected of
them. Dealing with them using a
sense of humor will delay conflicts and outbursts.
Bathroom humor is extremely funny to the six year old.
During the seminar I learned that the comedic view of life is valuable for intellectual aspects of life. The nature of children’s laughter is comparable with that of an adult sense of humor. While an adult may find a comedy about death amusing, a child might find a violent cartoon amusing. Children love to be funny. Most classrooms have a student whose desire is to make people laugh. Mostly all children love to laugh at the jokes and antics of their friends. This unit is designed to bring out the humor in every student. For those who already have a comic streak, it provides insight into when it is acceptable to be funny in the classroom. For shyer children it can help to raise self-esteem along with making them feel comfortable in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Infusing comedy into the classroom allows students to better understand these areas of development and experiences on individual levels as well as with their peers. This information will also help the teacher to guide them through the educational and social learning processes with more ease. Both students and teachers will be motivated to learn and teach more comfortably. Relating to children’s prior knowledge and real-life experiences will provide them with new knowledge and positive experiences. It is a subject that they can discover more about and, in turn, will hopefully lead them to discover more about themselves and the different spices that make up the world.
In
the curriculum unit, Comedy is a Spice of Kindergarten; students will learn the
meaning of comedy. They will have
group discussions about a variety of situations and topics that they think are
funny. Topics will include funny
feelings (as related to real life), funny stories (focusing on pretend or
make-believe), funny movies and cartoons, funny objects and funny jokes.
The
students will also learn how to distinguish between appropriate humorous
situations and instances when it is inappropriate to laugh in the classroom and
in society. They will begin to
recognize criteria for comedy in both real life and pretend situations.
It might be difficult to explain to the students that something that is
comic is not necessarily funny, however they can begin to understand that there
are different ways of looking at situations.
Comedy can help them to begin to define their role in the world and help
them to make adaptations to everyday social life.
They will learn through their play along with gaining a comic vision of
life.
These
lessons are developed in relation to the national, state, and local standards
that all Pittsburgh Public School curricula must meet.
The state has developed 62 content standards within 10 Core Curriculum
Frameworks to meet the national standards.
In this unit the focus is on the Communication Standards.
In the following classroom activities section of the curriculum I will
refer to these standards by number.
Many,
if not all, aspects of this curriculum unit can be taught using hands-on
activities. Designing various
learning situations and recognizing instances that would elicit the most
valuable teachable moments will help to teach the concepts.
This will ensure that the students get to learn the information through
their own experiences. By doing this, they will achieve an increased understanding
of the topic and have a more meaningful experience.
The
topic can be taught through lessons and center based experiences in the
classroom. The first step would be
the implementation of this curriculum into the daily routine.
This would lead a teacher to find out the student’s prior knowledge and
experiences surrounding the subject of comedy or what they think is funny or
humorous. Through discussions, a
teacher can discover the student’s perceptions of these ideas.
The next step is to provide several resources for the children to begin their explorations. Responses to literature, personal narratives, composing stories and movies, naming and finding a purpose for interesting objects, and telling and making up jokes are some examples, as well as categories, that I plan to serve. A variety of hands-on learning activities that coincide with their learning centers will also be used to enhance the learning process. Placing funny stories in the book center and funny looking objects at the table toys center, are some examples. We might even open a new learning center, the laughing center, where you are only permitted to do things that make you laugh.
As a
culminating activity, the children would be offered a forum to share with others
what they have learned and experienced. Some
ideas are a comedy show where they would tell favorite and made-up jokes, show a
class-made funny movie, and/or read a funny story.
The parents would be invited to come into the classroom to view these
items that were produced during the implementation of the curriculum unit.
In my teaching experiences, I’ve learned that children gain more knowledge working with a theme or unit in depth. These experiences can be even more successful when the theme or unit is of interest to them. This curriculum unit can be taught either as a five course meal ( 5 week unit) or dispersed throughout the entire year as appetizers when the students seem hungry. It all depends on the flexibility you have with your schedule and curriculum.
Classroom Activities
The following are examples of lessons and activities that can be used to support the ideas of this curriculum unit. Since every classroom differs you will have to adapt the environment and activities to your needs; season to the taste of your classroom. However, the basic principles of making learning more fun and taking a more objective view of life can be applied to all classrooms.
Lesson 1: Funny situations (real)
This can be dished out as the first lesson in the curriculum unit and can either be planned into your lessons or taught when an appropriate incident occurs that would lend itself to this type of discussion. For example, if a students trips while walking to the bathroom and other students laugh at him, you might want to hold this discussion later on that day to make the topic more relevant. This lesson addresses the communication standards C5, C6, C7, and C9, and C10. An objective of this lesson is to define comedy to the students. The students should be able to clearly communicate their perceptions of what is funny and understand that there can be different kinds of laughter. Another objective is to show students that it’s ok to laugh at oneself; this will help them in their search for their identity within the classroom.
The first step is to introduce students to the subject and find out their prior knowledge and experiences. Ask the students if they know what comedy means. Use student responses and your own accounts to explain that when something is comical it’s meant to be funny or humorous. To start a discussion about what they already know about funny things, simply ask them: What is funny? Students may have a variety of responses, such as: cartoons, jokes, movies, noises, books, faces, or falling down. These items can be recorded on an experience chart and referenced throughout the implementation of the curriculum unit.
In the instance that this discussion takes place shortly after a child
has fallen down it would be beneficial to lead the conversation to that
particular incident. This lesson
aims to focus on feelings in real life situations.
A goal is to get the students to realize that it’s not always funny
when someone falls down. By including feelings into the discussion,
the students will start to make the connection between the event and the
emotion. Be sure to offer
students concrete examples that they have either experienced or can relate to
and allow them to offer their own as well.
If
a clown at the circus trips over his big shoe, this is intended to make children
laugh and the clown is not hurting himself.
However, it’s not appropriate to laugh when a students trips on the way
to the bathroom, but to ask him if he is all right. Continue this discussion focusing on all of the real life
incidents they generated that would be funny to them. Ask students to give particular examples of when particular
incidents would or would not be funny. All
students should be given the opportunity to participate in the discussion to
ensure that they are gaining an understanding of the topic.
It
might be helpful to role-play the situations so the students can have a more
hands-on learning experience. To
touch upon gender issues, you may want to place girls in the initiating role
being that boys seem to more commonly initiate these types of reactions.
The mere fact of role-reversal may appear humorous to the students.
This can be discussed further as well.
Girls need to see that they can hold roles of status and power in a
society and this should be done in an acceptable manner.
The knowledge discussed and gained in this first lesson will be used as the student’s core knowledge of comedy throughout the curriculum unit. It’s almost like the base or stock of a soup, without it the taste just wouldn’t be the same. The preceding lessons and activities will use the student’s prior knowledge of comedy and humor and their learned intelligence to better enable them to relate comedy to other subjects.
Lesson 2: Funny stories (pretend)
This ingredient should be added during a time when you have planned
to read a comedic story to the class. It
can be one of the first humorous stories you have read to them or a favorite
humorous story that the class is familiar with.
It is at your discretion to choose which option would be most beneficial
to your students. This lesson
addresses the communication standards C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C9, and C10.
An objective of this lesson is to enable students to distinguish the
appropriateness of comedy in stories as opposed to real life situations.
The students will objectively reflect on situations that occurred or
lessons they have learned within the context of the story.
The students will also relate this information to their real-life
experiences.
As
with the first lesson, the first step is to introduce students to the topic and
find out their prior knowledge on the subject.
Ask the students if they know of any funny stories.
Have them explain what it is about the story that made them think it was
funny. Some responses might be that
the characters did something funny, something funny happened to one of the
characters, or maybe just the pictures seemed funny.
The
author Robert Munsch has a lot of great stories that can be used to help
students distinguish the difference between a real situation and a pretend one.
I chose Stephanie’s Ponytail as the story to use to cite
examples of pretend comedy. I noticed some characteristics of the book that were made
evident in the seminar as criteria for being funny.
There is a lot of mimicking and sarcasm throughout the events of the
story. After the story is read, the
students should be guided through a discussion to help them recognize these
elements. In his other stories,
which are cited in the bibliography, he uses comedic elements of slapstick (Thomas’
Snowsuit), repetition (Moira’s Birthday and Purple, Green and Yellow),
and bathroom humor (I Have To Go and Good Families Don’t).
As
an extension to this activity students can put their left over knowledge to use
in the form of writing. Students in
kindergarten are expected to write various entries for a portfolios requirement,
which will be passed onto first grade. Responses
to literature (What did you think was funny about the story?) or personal
narratives (What is something funny that you did?) can be elicited from the
students after these lessons. Appendix
A is an example of the format that can be used. The students should be discovering new flavors of learning
and season to their tastes along with their teachers, different ways to learn
about life that gives them confidence to take a bite out of life.
Lesson 3: Funny movies/cartoons (real/pretend)
This lesson will focus on discussing and viewing movies and cartoons
that the students find to have elements of comedy and humor in them.
Its objectives are to build upon ideas presented in previous lessons as
well as to providing some student generated hands-on learning experiences of
comedy in the classroom. This
lesson addresses the communication standards C6, C7. C8, C9, and C10.
To
begin this lesson, I would have students talk about movies or cartoon that they
think are funny and discuss why. During
this discussion they would be allowed to eat popcorn, hoping to make them relax
and get into the mood of the discussion. Ask
the students if they have notices that they are thinking about things
differently than they might have before and ask them to share instances of this.
For example, one student might have always viewed the Wylie the Coyote
getting crushed by dynamite as funny, while another students might not have
fully realized that it’s a pretend situation.
This can also relates to categories of what people find as humorous, such
as accidents and natural disasters.
During this lesson students will watch parts of a movie with real human
characters, Kindergarten Cop, and a movie with animated characters, The Rugrats
Movie. Students will discuss
similarities and differences between the comedic scenes of both movies.
The students will then be assigned to work as a class to write and
perform their own funny movie. The
students need to be directed to focus on what they’ve been learning and show
their ability to distinguish elements of comedy and appropriateness.
Since their movie is going to have human characters, themselves, they
need to be careful not to develop scenes that would be unappetizing.
The
students will view each scene after it is made and acted out to ensure that they
agree on it’s content. This
process can be videotaped if possible and shown at the Comedy Forum at the
culmination of the curriculum unit. Popcorn
anyone?
Lesson 4: Funny objects (name them)
This lesson focuses on the students’ abilities to use their
imagination and creativity in a humorous way.
This lesson addresses the communication standards C4, C8, C9, and C10.
An objective of this lesson is to take an everyday or unusual objects and
develop a name and a function for it.
To
begin this lesson I would bring in some unusual looking items into the classroom
for the students to view. I would
place these objects in an area where all of the students could view them, such
as the table toys learning center. The
students would be given the opportunity to view and explore these items
throughout the day. Some of these
items might be a metal hand mixer, an 8-track tape, or a pair of castanets.
These are most probably items the students have never seen.
I would demonstrate the assignment to the students. I would give one of the objects a name and a purpose, trying to be as humorous as possible. For example, I might call the metal hand mixer a hair twirler and describe its purpose as making your hair look like a birds nest. This would then be repeated with the class as a group. Some objects that normally have one function but have room to be creatively expanded upon are welcome also. Do you remember those metal cans that looked like they were full of peanuts? To your surprise you were not expecting to have a coiled snake jump out at you!
Students
will be assigned to bring an object from home or pick one of the objects in the
classroom not discussed and supply it with a name and a function.
To help students who are having trouble with this concept, the book Eloise’s
Guide To Life: How to Eat, Dress, Travel, Behave and Stay Six Forever! Should
do the trick. Parents also might
find some enjoyment helping their child with this assignment.
The students can then open a museum of funny objects for other students
and teacher in the school to view. These
items will also be put on display at the Comedy Forum.
Lesson 5: Funny jokes (tell and make up)
This lesson gives the students an opportunity to express their
humorous sides by letting them make up and tell funny jokes.
This lesson addresses the communication standards C5, C6, C7, C8, C9, and
C10. Objectives of this lesson are
for students to think objectively about why jokes are funny and to create some
jokes of their own.
Knock- knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Knock-knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Knock-knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Knock-knock
Who’s there?
Orange you glad
that I didn’t say banana.
The
students will discuss what it is that makes this joke funny. This will lead them into another discussion of elements of
comedy, such as the repetition of the word banana. Students will tell jokes they know, read jokes from books,
and make up their own jokes as activities in this lesson. During this unit you might want to take advantage of word
puns or using terms such as “smarty shirt” when someone refers to a student
being a smarty-pants.
The
now frequently used spice of the comic view should be more distinguishable to
the taste of your students. Hopefully,
this added ingredient to your classroom will provide an enjoyable environment
for both you and your students.
The Comedy Forum: Culminating Activity
This will be the culminating activity or dessert of the curriculum
unit. All of the ideas and concepts
learned in this unit will compliment each other when presented in this forum.
The parents will be invited to this event by invitation.
Students will display the products and perform a selection of activities
created during this course of study.
As
the parent’s walk in they will be treated to a comedy show made up of jokes
favored and made by the students. They
will then be treated to a movie that will either be acted out live or shown on a
video that was made in the classroom. The
students will guide the parents around the room to view the display of the
museum of funny objects along with their names and functions.
Students writing samples will also be on available for parents to view.
Parents can share thoughts about this unit with the teacher and other
parents. They might discuss if
they’ve noticed children behaving differently or developing a better sense of
humor. A comment card can be left
in a box at the door before leaving.
Lastly, I almost forget to mention, refreshments will be served!
Annotated Bibliography/Resources
Books: (the
classroom library should have a variety of comedic and humorous stories)
Cole, Joanna and Calmenson, Stephanie. Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?: And Other Riddles Old and New. Beech Tree Books, September 1994. A brief explanation about the origin of riddles combined with a wide variety of clever riddles.
Freymann, Saxton and Elferrs, Joost.
How Are You Peeling? Arthur
A. Levine Publishing, November 1999. Fruits
and vegetables mimic human emotions with their funny faces.
Keller, Charles. Best
Knock-Knock Book Ever. Sterling
Publications, March 2001. Age
appropriate knock-knock jokes.
Munsch, Robert. Stephanie’s
Ponytail. New York: Annick
Press Ltd, 1996. Stephanie’s
desire for individuality leads her to be copied by her classmates.
Munsch, Robert. Thomas’
Snowsuit. New York: Annick
Press Ltd, 1985. Thomas’ refusal
to wear his snowsuit puts him and others in some humorous predicaments at home
and at school.
Munsch, Robert. I
Have To Go! New York: Annick
Press Ltd, 1987. A boy has to go to
the bathroom at some very inappropriate times.
Munsch, Robert. Moira’s
Birthday. New York: Annick
Press Ltd, 1987. For Moira’s
birthday party she was allowed to invite six friends.
When the entire school shows up at her door, things don’t go as
smoothly as planned.
Munsch, Robert. Purple,
Green and Yellow. New York:
Annick Press Ltd, 1996. A young
girl’s desire to have some markers turns into an almost indelible mess.
Munsch, Robert. Good
Families Don’t. Yearling
Books, September 1991. A one of a
kind story that deals with the topic of farts!
Rumble, Patricia B. Mother
Goose Comedy Review. Encore
Performance Publishing, November 1994. Mother
Goose nursery rhymes, a comical version .
Stolzenberg, Mark. How
to Be Really Funny. Sterling
Publishing Company, May 1989. This
is primarily a picture book that illustrates a variety of ways to be funny.
Thompson, Kay. Eloise’s
Guide to Life: How to Eat, Dress, Travel, Behave and Stay Six Forever!
Simon and Schuster, June 2000.
A look at six-year-old Eloise’s comical view of life through her silly
habits and her antics.
Movies:
Kindergarten Cop. Universal Studios, 1990
- To trap a criminal a veteran cop goes undercover as a pre-school teacher.
The Rugrats Movie. PARAMOUNT, 1998
- Shown
through wacky animation, the gang goes on another series of goofy adventures
Spongebob Squarepants- Sponge Buddies. 1999
- An
introduction to Spongebob and all of his quirky friends.
Appendix A
Response to Literature
Name_________________________________________
Date____________
Title___________________________________________________________
Directions to the teacher: The teacher will direct the students to write about a
part of the story that they thought was funny and to draw a picture to go along
with their words. In this case the
writing would be in response to one of the stories used during the
implementation of the curriculum unit.
The following
criteria provide a guidelines for assessment:
There are details/ideas (either in words or pictures) taken directly from
the text to support the response.
A connection is included that provides evidence of the student’s
ability to link text ideas to personal
experiences.
Appendix B
Personal Writing
Name_______________________________________ Date________________
Directions to the teacher: The teacher will direct the student to write about a funny circumstance, memorable event, or situation in his/her personal life that holds special significance and draw a picture to go with your words. In this case the writing should relate to concepts discussed in the curriculum unit.
The following
criteria provide a guideline for assessment:
Picture(s) and any writing provide a clear representation and/or
description of the event.
Details (included in the picture(s) and any writing) provide sufficient
information to support representation or description.
The student’s writing represents grade-appropriate knowledge of letters and sound associations to convey meaning through print.
Communications Standards
Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening
C1 All
students use effective research and information management skills, including locating
primary and secondary sources of information with traditional and emerging
library technologies.
C2 All
students read and use a variety of methods to make sense of various kinds of
complex texts.
C3 All
students respond orally and in writing to information and ideas gained by
reading narrative and informational texts
and use the information and ideas to make decisions
and solve problems.
C4 All
students write for a variety of purposes, including to narrate, inform and persuade,
in all subject areas.
C5 All
students analyze and make critical judgments about all forms of communication,
separating fact from opinion, recognizing propaganda, stereotypes and
statements of bias, recognizing
inconsistencies and judging the validity of evidence.
C6 All
students exchange information orally, including understanding and giving spoken
instructions, asking and answering questions appropriately, and promoting
effective group communications.
C7 All
students listen to and understand complex oral messages and identify their
purpose, structure and use.
C8 All
students compose and make oral presentations for each academic area of study
that they are designed to persuade, inform or describe.
C9 All
students converse, at a minimum level of “Intermediate Low,” as defined in
the oral proficiency guidelines
developed by the American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages, in at least one language other than English, including
the native language if other than
English.
C10 All students communicate appropriately in business, work and other applied situations.