Inspiration Station

The Laughing Classroom

Ideas from The Laughing Classroom by Diana Loomans and Karen Kolberg

The Laughing Classroom is “Everyone’s guide to teaching with humor and play.”

I will be updating this page regularly with activities from the book. Check back often to keep the laughter floating through the air. Live. Laugh. Love. ~Mrs. Ziegler J

If you are thinking a year ahead, smile.  
If you are thinking ten years ahead, laugh.  
If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, teach others to laugh.

By sowing a smile once, you will harvest one.  
By planting laughter, you will harvest tenfold.  
Be teaching others to laugh, you will harvest one hundredfold.

An adaptation of an ancient Chinese poem.

When you fill your mind  
with things of heart,  
You begin to soar,  
For that’s wisdom’s start.

“The Laughter Rap”

This information is intended to be read aloud rap style, while listeners snap their fingers to the beat and make rap sounds if they choose!

Your brain’s a be-bopping,
Never-stopping machine,  
A neural circuit, circus-  
You call your “noggin” your “bean.”  
It turns on and off at a megarate,  
As chemical impulses reverberate,  
And flow, to show  
The pituitary gland has been stimulated.  
Now there’s a gland that’s been underrated-  
How else would survival be communicated?  
Hormones and endorphins  
Race through your blood-  
Over hill, over dale, keep your eye on the flood.  
Your pulse rate and blood pressure  
Climb the tall ladder.  
You’re feeling really fine, but keep track of your bladder.  
Your temperature rises half a degree.  
Your internal landlord turns up the heat for free.  
Your vocal chords quiver, and your face contorts,  
And the pout you’ve been sprouting that says you’re out of sorts  
Takes a hike, takes a trip,  
Leaves town.  
And the smile you’ve been hiding  
Moves in and wins – hands down.  
Your arteries and muscles expand and contract,  
Then pressure builds in your air cul-de-sac.  
From your mouth, your lips, your teeth and tongue,  
At seventy miles per hour, a laugher shower gets flung.  
Don’t glower – there’s power in a laugh.  
It’s an inner upper –  
It’s more filling than a seven-course supper.  
So stretch those fourteen muscles and smile.  
If you do, I’m with you,  
‘Cause you’ve got style!

“The Rattle Hymn”

Mine eyes have seen how humor  
Strikes a universal chord.  
It’s now tumbling out of classrooms  
Causing minds to be restored.  
It has loosed the fateful, frightening plight  
Of students who are bored.  
Laughter is catching on.

Glory, glory, humor to ya,  
Glory, glory, humor to ya,  
Glory, glory, humor to ya,  
Laughter is catching on.

The beauty of all laughter is  
It’s joy that we can see.  
In the story told by students,

They are learning happily.  
If you take the time to laugh and smile,  
No doubt you will agree – that  
Laughter is catching on.

Glory, glory, humor to ya,  
Glory, glory, humor to ya,  
Glory, glory, humor to ya,

Laughter is catching on.

Quote of the Week

“To be fond of something is better than merely to know it, and to find joy in it is better than merely to be fond of it.” -Confucius