How a little laughter can help with your classroom management :-)

Laughing in class?  Is this appropriate? In my class it is required!!!

Laughter is good for your health and has a L O N G list of benefits.

Because I want my classroom environment to be as stress free as possible I have implemented a few laughter generating strategies to help create as many positive experiences that my students and I can share.   

  

The Joke Jars are something new for me this year.  Our schedule is a little crazy this year and there are lots of transitions.  To help settle the wiggles I pull a joke from the Joke Jar.  If we line up fast and quiet there will be a minute free for a joke!!  Jokes are pulled throughout the day to speed up our transitions or to give us all a little brain break.  Jokes are submitted by the students and they are so proud when their joke is shared.  

We had also had jokes submitted by big brothers, sisters and grandpa. 

 Grandpa’s jokes have been very entertaining for sure!!

I have also checked a variety of joke and riddle books from our classroom library.  

These books are available for students to copy their favorite joke for the Joke Jar.

When visiting the library I encourage the students to look for books they think are funny.  Before returning the books to the library the students share examples from the book for a good laugh.

We also sing a variety of funny songs read funny poems and watch cute and silly kitty and puppy videos from YouTube to get the giggles started for our brain breaks.

The most valuable and productive strategy is to LAUGH AT YOURSELF and invite others to do so too.   When ever you do something silly or wrong, share it with the class and laugh at it.  For example, Last week I bent down and my glasses fell into the sink and for what ever reason I didn't realize it.  When they were discovered by a student I just started laughing at how silly I was not to notice.   The entire class began to giggle just for a moment and quietly returned to their writing assignment.  Wishing you lots of laughs in your classroom.