Funny Friday

We do Morning Meeting every day in our school and the one constant in my room (probably in most) is the Morning Message. I usually give the kids something to jot about and then they bring their jots to morning circle. This has worked well because it gives them time to think about the morning’s discussion topic and it provides a focus for homeroom time.

Last week I decided to make my life a bit simpler and instituted “Threes Day” on Thursdays and “Funny Friday” on Fridays. Threes Day simply asks them to make a list of three things, I provide a theme each week. For example this week it was St. Patrick’s Day so they wrote three things they like that are green. Simple!

Fridays are “Funny Fridays” and you guessed it, everyone writes a joke! Circle Time then becomes joke time. It’s great! We have only done it twice but they got so much better at it this week. And we laugh and sometimes we have to explain the jokes and often a parent has lent a hand at providing the joke. Some of the kids even make up the joke, and they are pretty good at it! It’s fun to listen to their delivery and their willingness to laugh at themselves if they mess up the joke (so easy to do!).

It’s amazing how many really old jokes are still around. And still funny. You know, like, “Knock Knock, who’s there, banana…” They like to play around with that one. And of course there are variations on “Why did the chicken…” Sometimes they totally crack up at a joke and the adults in the room are left wondering, “Did I miss something?” I delivered the old, “What’s black and white and (red) all over?” They had a few responses but when I shared “A newspaper!” they had fun figuring out the ins and outs of the wordplay.

So, I’m looking for some great jokes! Anyone got any?