Many adults associate April Fools Day with pranks. But, as any parent who has tried to pull a practical joke or speak ironically to their young child knows, kids do not always experience (or appreciate) pranks as we do. What if we reframed April Fools Day as April Funs Day? Kids are experts at all things fun and silly! When we get silly, we delight kids and we enter into their world in a way that really gets their attention. Plus, adding some humor to play is a super way to spark the kind of joy that helps kids (and us) thrive. As part of our free Calendar of activities, we say, "Let's make this April 1st (and every day!) a day for silly moments and belly laughs for all!"
If you don't yet have your free copy of the monthly Activity Calendar, download it here.
The Guide
Step 1: Create a Silly Jar.
Grab a jar (or hat/box), some paper and something to write with. Let kids know that April Funs Day is coming, a day to celebrate all that is silly! Show them the jar and say, “Do you know what this is? It’s not just a jar—it’s our Silly Jar! We can write down all of the silly things we want to do on April Funs Day and put them in this jar.”
Step 2: Fill your Silly Jar.
Ask your child what kinds of silly things they would like to do, write them down on strips of paper and put them in the jar. If kids can write or draw, hand them some paper, too! Need ideas? Here are some Tinkergarten favorites:
Bring instruments or a phone or other music-player outside. Have a silly dance party to make each other laugh.
While you dance—or just while you are hanging out—take turns imitating each other’s silly movements.
Want a starting place for silly movements? Imitate animals and try to guess which creature each of you is pretending to be. Add in noises and let yourselves get really into the play.
Look in the mirror together and make funny faces. Be sure to mimic one another's silly faces. Kids LOVE to see people copying what they are doing, and when we make different faces, we actually help kids learn emotional empathy! Or, get on video chat with people you love and do the same.
Help kids hang upside down, and even try to hang upside down yourself—that change in perspective can help everyone find a little more silliness, and it helps balance kids senses, too!
Use sidewalk chalk to leave silly pictures on the sidewalk that will make neighbors and passersby smile.
Stand outside your home or on a safe corner of the street and wave, smile or do a silly dance to the cars and people who go by.
Write a joke on a piece of paper and leave in someone’s mailbox or record it on video and send it to someone.
Wear your clothes backwards or inside out.
Make MUD and let loose!
Make a silly hat or nature crown from objects you find outside.
Sing your child’s favorite song and change the words to something silly.
Make it a backwards day! Eat dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.
Have a conversation together where all the words are sung instead of spoken.
Dress up in costumes and take a family walk or bike ride around the neighborhood.
Step 3: Celebrate and share.
On April 1st, let the silliness commence! Throughout the day, invite your child to select and try out one of the silly ideas from their jar. Share photos of your family’s April Funs Day with loved ones to spread smiles. Tag @tinkergarten in your photos and share them within our OutdoorsAll4 FB community to inspire even more silliness and joy!
Still want a little prank? Here are two favorites kids can get behind!
"Sprung a Leek"— Place a sizable leek under the sink, radiator, etc. then get an adult to come running with the phrase, "There's a big "leek" under the radiator!"
"Brown E's"—Cut a series of letter E's out of brown paper or just draw a bunch of letter E's on a piece of paper using a brown marker or crayon. Ask a friend or family member if they'd like some brownies. Then, present them with your brown e's. We love to also have yummy baked brownies to enjoy after a good laugh, too.
Why is this activity great for kids?
Adding silliness to your family routines is a super way to spark joy, an emotion that impacts our bodies and our minds in lasting ways. And, a good sense of humor gives kids the tools they need to see things from many perspectives, a cornerstone of empathic thinking. Humor also helps kids think flexibly and grasp unconventional ways of approaching a situation—both of which allow for divergent thinking, an essential component of creativity.
By creativity, we mean the ability to both imagine original ideas or solutions to problems and actually do what needs to be done to make them happen. So, to help kids develop creativity, we parents need to nurture kids' imaginations and give them lots of chances to design, test, redesign and implement their ideas.
"Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
Why, you ask? For one, it is through being creative that a person is able to get senses, sensibility and spirit working together. Simply put, without creativity, we don't think our kids will live a full life.
On a more practical level, it's also the means by which humans of all ages make an impact on the world and other people around them. A lot of heavy stuff is going to go down in our kids' lifetime, and their generation will need to imagine and implement solutions to big and very complicated problems. Although our kids are still far from public office or the boardroom, today's political and business leaders worldwide are already pointing to creativity as the most important leadership quality for the future.
Although years from the art studio or design lab, little kids can learn to think and act creatively if you give them time and the right practice.
Imagination
Category:
Thinking Skills
What is Imagination?
Imagination is defined in many ways, but one we like is, "the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality." This is no small task to little kids, and yet young childhood is a time in which imagination is developed more than any other. How does imagination develop in childhood? Through an increasingly sophisticated life of make believe.
We all likely have a sense of what we mean by make believe or good old "pretend play." How do experts define it, though? To some, there are different types of make believe that vary in sophistication and make pretend play different than other types of play. For example, kids may use objects to represent something else (e.g. a block becomes a cell phone). Or, they may start to give an object certain properties (e.g. a doll is asleep or a tree is on fire!). Still yet, they may themselves take on the properties of someone or something else.
From there, pretend play evolves into acting out scenarios or stories, those getting increasingly intricate as imagination develops. As kids' pretend play grows more sophisticated, these stories come to involve not only the creative use of objects, but multiple perspectives (e.g. good and bad guys in the same story), and/or the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions (e.g. I am sad, but then become happy after I save the village from certain doom).
Why does it matter?
An ever growing body of research substantiates the many benefits of pretend play including the enhanced development of: language and communication skills; self-control and empathy; flexible and abstract thinking; and creativity. These are the skills that will help kids balance emotions, form healthy relationships, work effectively on teams, stay focused in school, be successful at various jobs and solve the problems of an increasingly complicated world. An individual's creativity in particular, both requires and is limited by her imagination.
Empathy
Category:
Social Skills
What is Empathy?
Simply put, empathy is the ability to think and care about the feelings and needs of others. The good news is, the more we study, it appears that children are empathetic by nature. All we need to do is nurture it in them—that of course is now always easy. Even though young children are simply working on gaining control over their emotions and won’t learn to really think about their emotions and the cause and effect of their behavior on others until their school years, they can start to develop the foundation for empathy much earlier. Taking actions (and watching adults take actions) that benefit other people, caring for animals and their environment and even just wondering how other people or creatures are feeling helps build both positive habits and a strong base for the development of empathy.
Why does it matter?
Empathy is at the root of what psychologists call “pro-social” behavior—behavior that people must develop in order to develop a conscience, build close relationships, maintain friendships, and develop strong communities. Empathy also helps kids avoid bullying, one of the most worrisome social challenges young kids face. Being able to think and feel for others can keep kids from becoming either bully or victim and equip them to stand up for others who are bullied. Imagine if all kids had such tools!
Age: 0 to 8+
Time: 1 hour+
Materials: jar, paper, pen, imaginations
