Young children have a great sense of the ridiculous and hence have fun with rhymes and expressions that are nonsensical and whacky. Appealing to their seemingly innate sense of the quirky helps to get across useful ideas and strategies that can help them in life.
Having fun is important for you as well as your students and delving into the ridiculous is an end in itself I find! As an educator and counsellor working in the early childhood sector I have been known to dabble in the daft, query the quirky and to ponder peculiar prose!
Spike Milligan was prolifically nonsensical and left us with classics like the Ning Nang Nong, which somehow appealed to our sense of fun. I never tire of the old Maxwell Smart reruns, laughing heartily at the antics of the eccentric Agent 86! And Tommy Cooper (if you’re old enough to remember) was altogether a unique individual who was a master of the absurd.
Cooper: ‘Can you give me something for wind?’
Doctor: ‘Here’s a kite. Go and fly it.’
Appealing to children’s ‘sense of the silly’ is a useful way to help young ones explore the topic of bullying in a fun way.
The poem below is one I have used to show students how humour can offset the debilitating and hurtful effects of bullying. It is a teaching tool to:
- Introduce the topic i.e. what does it (bullying) look like, sound like and act like?
- Why do others do this?
- What can we do about it (explore all options)
Perhaps you can try this with my poem ‘You Are Dumb!’ and see how you go.
You are dumb!
You are dumb
She said to me
So I said
Dumb, diddly
Dumb dumpty dee!
You are stupid
They said to me
So I said
Stupid dupid
Fiddly Fee!
You are a nerd
He said to me
So I said
Nerd niddly nerd
niddly nerd nernee!
You smell
They said to me
So I said
Smell jelly smelly
Smell stinky pee!
My friend Max
She said to me
You are my pal
Cuddly dee dee
Cuddly cuddly dee!
For whatever reason people can behave unkindly and this is to be expected for life is unfair. Whilst we would like everyone in the world to be respectful and kind we can learn to accept that this cannot be so and we can practice Unconditionally Accepting Ourselves (and others).
The poems message is that not everyone is mean, you are ok anyway and how people view you does not in the end define you!
