Make Room for More Silliness in Your Classroom

Every student wants the opportunity to cut loose, be silly, and have fun! What that looks like varies depending on the age of your students, but I promise you, all students love and appreciate spontaneity in their daily lives. The more, the better.

While sometimes students want to be silly just for the sake of having fun, other times, they actually need an opportunity to be silly.

The Benefits of Silliness

Silly moments can reset the overall mood in your classroom, serve as an attention grabber, and even show your students that you simply see them and that they need the opportunity to be who they are - kids.

For example, a few months ago, I was teaching my last class of the day. The late bell had just rung, and the body language I was seeing told me my students were still wound up from having come to my room straight from basketball practice. I could just feel all of that restless energy in the air. So, I put down the stack of papers I was about to pass out and started singing the SpongeBob theme song.

Really.

I gave no warning. I just burst out into song! "Oooooh, who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

My sixth-graders didn't miss a beat! They jumped right in and responded in their singing voices, "SpongeBob Squarepants!"

"Absorbent and yellow and porous is he."

"SpongeBob Squarepants!!!"

We went back and forth and sang the whole song. (And I'd like to take a moment here to toot my own horn. They were VERY impressed that I knew all the lyrics! Ha!) After the song ended, we laughed, I asked if they felt better (they did), and then we moved on to the lesson I'd planned with smiles on our faces. They just needed a silly moment to help them focus their attention and expel some fidgety energy.

Silly moments are simple yet useful and powerful.

Scheduling Silliness

Using silliness as needed in the moment is awesome and helpful, but remember that you can also easily plan for it in advance and incorporate it into the learning experience. I'm all about that!

For example, while working on making additions to my poetry unit this year, I had the idea to create Hilarious Haiku. Hilarious Haiku is a simple, fun addition to any poetry unit that gives your students the opportunity to show off what they have learned about haiku - because we all know students love to show off, especially middle school students. (If you're looking for ways to embrace their love of showing off, check out this post.)

Writing Hilarious Haiku in the Classroom

So, here's how Hilarious Haiku works.

Students can work together in pairs or groups or work individually.

You'll assign one of the 18 included high-interest topics for upper elementary/middle school students to write a haiku about, which include Crocs, capybara, sneakers, and sushi, just to name a few, or let students select their topics themselves.

Then, they'll use the included brainstorming cards to help them get started.

After brainstorming is complete, they'll begin crafting their haiku.

Once your students have finished composing amazing haiku, let them decorate their poems and display them!

There are more helpful tips in the included teacher tips sheet, but that's the gist!

More Opportunities for Fun

For a little additional fun, turn haiku writing into a competition. For example, the haiku that gets the most laughs, wins! You could even post the haikus in the hallway and let the other classes or grades vote on their favorites.

How Do You Make Room for Silliness in Your Classroom?

I hope you find many opportunities to embrace the silliness in your classroom, not just for your students, but for you as well! If you have a favorite strategy or go-to technique that helps you embrace the need for silliness, share it in the comments. I'd love to hear it!

(And if it bothers you that the plural form of haiku is haiku, please know that you are not alone. I want to add the letter S so very badly to the end of the word haiku. LOL!)

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Until next time!

Lauren