Funny for Kids

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Train Your Child to think like a Genius by putting 10 essential thinking skills into fun action!

Learning centers provide many opportunities for integrated learning. While playing in an imaginary grocery store, children learn math through the use of numbers and prices, literacy by recognize familiar labels on foods and develop social skills through role play as the shopper, cashier or manager and develop their physical skills by learning how to arrange cans and groceries in make-up shelves.

Play has been the focus of many research studies in early childhood as playing provides a wonderful and creative way for them to interact. The other benefits when play is included in their curriculum are:

1. Play provides children with opportunities for social development as they learn to share materials, develop plans, negotiate differences and solve problems.
2. Play helps to build motor skills as they use eye-hand coordination and engage in activities such as running, skipping and jumping.
3. Play helps children’s emotional development as they play out their fears, learn to control their anxieties and cope with disappointments, resolve conflicts and gain a sense of competence.
4. Play helps the children o express their ideas, thoughts and feelings thus developing their creativity and imagination.
5. Play provides children opportunities to understand the world.
6. Play develops their language, motor skills and social, emotional and intellectual skills.

Lieberman (1966) identified playfulness as humorous, emotionally expressive, novelty-seeking, curious, open and communicative. She developed preschool worksheets of questionnaires to help teachers to identify playfulness in children and is divided into five sections.

1. Physical spontaneity
   Questionnaires will track how often the child participates in physical movement during play and are her movements well-coordinated.
2. Social Spontaneity
   Observing the child flexibility in their interactions and cooperation while playing in the group.
3. Cognitive spontaneity
   Observing whether the child uses their imagination and are spontaneous during dramatic play.
4. Sense of humor
   Observing whether the child displays a sense of humor and enjoys joking or clowning around.
5. Manifest joy
   Observing the child’s responsive behavior during play activities.

The preschool worksheets provide a way to assess play and the children who participate. It helps the teachers to appreciate play and the benefits play can provide for developing these skills.

The activities described in this article allow your children to make-believe through Mother Goose nursery rhymes. I always like to use the classics because of their simplicity and rhyme which make them easier for the children to remember the words and to recite them with you. When the rhymes are repeatedly recited with them, the children will tend to use the words and phrases in their own play, thus nurturing their creativity and imagination.

This activity requires the children to put Mother Goose nursery rhymes into motion that is, acting them out. You can choose a simple nursery rhyme which the children are familiar with like Jack and Jill or There was a Crooked Man. I would usually recite the rhyme before I ask the children to act it out. I like to build their enthusiasm and excitement by telling the children to listen carefully because they would need to act out the rhyme. This can also train their listening skills and their imagination because as you are reciting they will be trying to imagine the actions to go along with the rhyme. Give them pails to carry and build a small hill by pressing and piling up some cardboard boxes.

Little Miss Muffet is also another great nursery rhyme to play as most of the movements are the same. Play together with the children as you recite the rhyme by taking turns to be the spider and encourage them to be imaginative and creative when they are pretending to be the spider by thinking how a spider moves and how Miss Muffet would respond when she saw the spider. Ask open-ended questions like – did Miss Muffet squeal with fright or fainted from fear? Use and choose appropriate Mother Goose nursery rhymes to play with them as these activities can expand their make-believe abilities and even overcome their fear they might be experiencing.

Some children are very adept in role playing and can make-believe without difficulty but there can be others who are more shy and self-conscious. You can coax them out from their shell by assuring them that pretend play is a fun thing to do and help them get started by offering suggestions or acting them out first. When children see adults doing funny imaginary actions, encourage and bond a trust in them and when they start to trust you, they will slowly come out from their cocoon and you would be surprised that they can be just as inventive and spontaneous as their other more outspoken playmates.

Mother Goose nursery rhymes, poems, songs and stories are remarkable tools to nurture imagination and creativity in children. They provide a structure that they can follow easily and when the themes are discussed by asking the children to imagine new characters or endings may stimulate imaginative thinking. When the children become familiar with them, they tend to use the words they have learned and the roles they have played to help them discover their own creativity and develop confidence in their ideas.

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.

Kindergarten learning is the period of life where they learning to develop their motor skills, cognitive thinking, social skills, creativity and it is very important to ensure that they are having fun and enjoying themselves.

During this period, they love to play and imagine games which are fun and creative which are most effective for learning.

Playing imaginary games
Pretend to use an imaginary object and have the children guess what you are doing. You can pretend to saw a plank of wood, water plants, cook, swim or drink a glass of water. Reverse roles where you guess while the children pretend.

This is one of the many fun english lessons which never fails to delight them but do not look down on this classic and simple game as it fosters many benefits as it can develop communication skills, cognitive thinking, observation skills, creativity and imagination.

Ask Open-Ended Questions to arouse their curiosity

Ask children open-ended questions during their kindergarten learning as such questions can stimulate learning by encouraging them to think and discover on their own. Suggested open-ended questions are such that there is no one correct answer -

How would you describe…?

How would you design this lunch box to make it more useful?

How does this work?

Why did you choose that?

Why do you need to drink yoghurt?

Who would you like to be when you grow up?

What does a rock feels like?

What would happen when you can combine pretend play with open-ended questions? Awesome and “FUNtastic” fun english lessons for kindergarten learning!

1. Tell a Bedtime story to your favorite baby!
   When you read stories to your children regularly you are encouraging them to be good readers and you can promote pretending to read by providing them opportunities, such as reading to their baby dolls. Children who pretend to read in their kindergarten years are more likely to become successful readers.
   Set up the scene in their bedroom and place their favorite dolls, stuffed animals on the bed. Give your child books with big prints and colorful pictures, play lullaby music to set the mood and encourage them to read to their favorite dolls and although they are not really reading, they feel like readers when they pretend to read.
   After the story telling has ended, ask them open-ended questions to expand their knowledge and promote their curiosity like -
   How does your baby feel when you …….? Or
   what can you do to make them feel happier?
   This game can be played at their kindergarten but you can also bring this kindergarten learning to your home as the props are easy to set up, very safe, a single player game and can release you well needed time to do your own work.
   This is one of the classic fun english lessons your children will never tire of playing.
2. Doctor, Doctor, Help! I am sick!
   When children are given opportunities to answer questions, their communication skills and as they become more active in questioning and answering, their understanding of the language will increase.
   Set up props to make your play area look like a doctor’s office. Make signs like “We are Open”, “Opening Hours”, or something humorous like “No toys please, we only treat real girls and boys”. Encourage the children to think creatively for more of such signage to be hung around.
   Prepare slips of paper for them to “register” themselves – name, type, age and allergies to any food. Have children pretending to be the receptionist, doctor and the patient.
   Roll the camera, start and action!
   After the session is over, ask them open-ended questions like -
   How can you tell if you are sick?
   What did you do to help yourself feel more comfortable?

There are endless fun english lessons and creative pretend games which you can create for fun and effective kindergarten learning such as playing detective, veterinarian or firefighter. When you provide props to enrich the environment, unique literacy experiences are enhanced that encourages children’s creativity, stimulate more ideas to bring into play and capturing their interest as they learn to read and write and have fun at the same time. Create more fun english lessons as fun learning is effective learning!

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.

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Songs, poems and finger plays are some of the preschoolers activities that promote pre-reading skills. These activities help them to strengthen their vocabulary, develop memory capacity, hear syllables, gain phonological awareness, learn auditory discrimination, play with rhyming, understand sequencing and hear the rhythm and flow of language.

You can engage a little twist to singing songs. Play any familiar songs but sing each syllable backwards, for example, “Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool” become “Aab, Aab kcalb peehs, evah uoy yna loow”. When the preschoolers hear the familiar melody, they will recognize the song and the preschoolers find them humorous as they are sung in a funny manner giving them laughter and enjoyment.

Songs, poems and finger plays are great preschoolers activities as they can instill a love of words and language.

Creating books has many benefits;

1. Train them to become readers and writers

2. Learn to apply the literacy concepts

3. Learn to associate oral language with written language

4. learn how to sequence events

5. Compose their own stories and write at their own levels

6. Motivate them to develop their writing skills at higher levels

7. Help them to gain confidence to believe that they are great readers and writers

When preschoolers are given the opportunity to create their own books foster an environment of excitement and enthusiasm encouraging them to keep and re-read their own books. Creating books is one of many special and meaningful preschoolers activities for pre-reading skills.

Dramatic play allows preschoolers to explore oral and written language. Ideas and concepts which they have learned and familiar with are no longer abstract and arbitrary but become real when they engage in dramatic plays. When they are surrounded by an enriched literacy environment, learning becomes natural as they can practice, experiment and explore oral and written language.

During dramatic play, props are usually used for their many benefits -

1. To stimulate ideas

2. To learn to interact by encouraging them to communicate their needs and ideas to peers

3. To provide unique literacy experiences that develops their creativity

4. To expose them to print from real-life situations and use these prints in meaningful ways. Suggested ideas are creating a scene from a doctor’s office where you have a receptionist writing down the particulars of patients using sign-in sheets or a scene from a restaurant with waiters or waitresses writing the orders from customers using order pads.

Dramatic plays are very fun preschoolers activities which provide the opportunities to discover literacy concepts in a natural environment or setting.

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.

Laughter is a powerful tool in childhood education for its many benefits -

1. Develops good social skills – laughter helps to break the ice and creates bonds between people
2. Develops pre-reading skills – kids love poems and nursery rhymes for their rhyming words or nonsense syllables
3. Develops creativity – when kids are given the opportunities to do silly or funny things such as walking backwards or walk and quack like a duck instill in them a sense of humor which has long-term benefits such as they are encouraged or allowed to stretch their imagination, think outside the box and expose them to look at situations from different perspectives.
4. Develops cognitive thinking – among the areas of cognitive thinking are intelligence, reasoning, language development and memory. Laughter can increase learning and retention as both sides of the brain are stimulated and when kids are enjoying themselves while learning tend to learn and retain more of what is being taught.

Below are several funny for kids’ animal games which will make your kids roar with laughter.

1. Five Mischievous Monkeys
   You can finger play while reading this short story.
   One mischievous monkey eats banana (pretend to peel banana)
   Two mischievous monkeys walk like crabs (walk sideways)
   Three mischievous monkeys sing like ducks (quack and flap your arms)
   Four mischievous monkeys dance like ballerinas ( raise arms and toes and circle round)
   Five mischievous monkeys sleep all day (put your hands against cheek and snore)
2. Three little Pigs
   Encourage the kids to act out the story as they are read and to make this funnier for kids, show them how to do the actions in slow motion and the movements must be in tandem with the reading. This game develops the kids in many skills such as body awareness, cognitive thinking, creative movement, emotions, listening, observation, reading, coordination and socializing. This is a group game and is great for parties too.
   Once upon a time, there were three little pigs.
   The first little pig built his house with straw
   The second little pig built his house with sticks.
   The third little pig built his house with bricks.
   One day, a big bad wolf came to the straw house.
   “Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
   “No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the first little pig.
   “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf. (To make this even more funny for kids, encourage them to think creatively how to act silly while huffing and puffing)
   And he huffed, and he puffed and he blew the house down.
   The big bad wolf came to the stick house.
   “Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
   “No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the second little pig.
   “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf.
   And he huffed, and he puffed and he blew the house down.
   The big bad wolf came to the brick house.
   “Little pig, little pig, can I come in?” he said.
   “No, by the hair on my chin I won’t let you in”, said the third little pig.
   “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” said the big bad wolf.
   So he huffed, and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed, but he couldn’t blow the house down.
   So the big bad wolf climbed on to the roof and came down the chimney…..
   Splash! That was the end of the big bad wolf.
   At the end of the play, ask the kids why the big bad wolf could not blow the house down and what happened to the wolf when he came down the chimney. Encourage and allow the kids to make up the ending of the wolf themselves.

Kids are fond of animals and can empathize with their feelings and when they are exposed to such funny for kids animal games help them to explore and understand the world of animals in funny ways.

Consider downloading “Mind Power Series” today with a 56 –day trial at http://www.gamesforfunkids.com and see for yourself why parents, teachers, child care providers, kindergartens and everyone who are interested in early childhood education are so excited and sharing about how the “Mind Power Series” has widen their knowledge on how to use very simple, fun, effective and fuss-free methods to develop their children individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills.