Teach Primary Issue 18.6

• What would a world without comedy be like? • How does it make you feel after you and your friends have been laughing? • What have you enjoyed or found tricky about learning comedy? • What comedy style have you liked the most and why? would like to fight a lion. Or you could use a formal-looking picture of, for example, King Charles, and have him saying something you would never expect him to say in real life, such as “I wish we’d gone to McDonalds instead.” Another good technique is to first think about what piece of dialogue. Discuss how the captions or dialogue need to be short and immediately engaging for the reader. Talk to the children about how a good technique is to think about what the biggest contrast to the image might be. For example, a cute-looking kitten could have a funny caption thinking about how it • Once the children have gained confidence in their performance styles, invite an audience to a comedy show in the classroom. This could be another class, or some parents. You could even put on a fun end-of-year show. • Get the children to write up comedy tips based on what they have learnt about becoming comedians. What advice would they want to share and what is the best way to present the information – booklet, poster or fact files? • Pupils could research their favourite funny authors. Can they spot which comedy tricks the authors use regularly in their books? How do the writer and illustrator combine words and pictures to make readers laugh? • Invite a comedian or caricaturist into the school to host an assembly and share how they have made a career out of comedy and their learnings along the way. EXTENDING THE LESSON is actually happening in the picture and then to put an absurd twist on it, thinking about what could be happening instead. For example, ‘two people washing their car’ could become ‘two people giving their pet car a bath’. 3 | MIX AND MATCH Put out on the tables a selection of magazines, images and drawing materials for the class. Ask the children to work in groups of three. One child in the group should draw or create a funny face from the materials supplied. They should then fold the paper over and pass it to the next person, who will create a funny body. The final person then creates funny legs and feet, and gives the character a name. Ask the groups to unfold and reveal their new characters and work as a team to write some weird and wonderful facts about them. Encourage the children to think of absurd ideas or to play on the name or appearance of the character. For example, if the character is wearing a ballgown, why not think of an activity you would never do in a ballgown, like driving monster trucks, and make that their favourite activity? Once all the groups have written their character profiles, get them to share and explain their creation with other groups. Can the mixed groups come up with a funny story or sketch involving two or more of their new characters to share with the class? Emily Azouelos is a former primary teacher and leader who has moved to the world of heritage and arts-based organisations. She creates educational-related content for a variety of settings. “As a class, agree how you should use comedy in the classroom” USEFUL QUESTIONS www.teachwire.net | 87