Word Play
Why is everyone exhausted on April 1st?
Because they just finished a 31-Day March!
(with a little state testing thrown in)
April is a perfect time of year to have a little fun with word learning. State tests are over. Spring has begun. It is lighter later and kids can go outside for some play and exercise after school. Phew! We made it! Time to play.
Word play is not a frill , or simply just fun. Word games can really improve vocabulary. This is because most word games use semantic and/or phonological skills, which are the exact same skills that children need for learning words.
Take the opening joke. In order to get why it is funny, you have to understand the multi-meaning of march and know the meaning of exhausted. You also need to know that the month of March has 31 days. That’s a lot of mental gymnastics! Jokes usually require the listener or reader to first think about the literal meaning of the words. Then he or she must think about additional meanings and relationships in order to figure out why it is funny.
There are so many ways to engage with word play. Here are just a few:
Alliteration
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Idiom
Pun
Hyperbole
Allusions
Onomatopoeia
Hyphenated words
Invented words (Think: Frindle by Andrew Clements)
Then there are those words that tickle the tongue and are just fun to say: bamboozled, bumbershoot, curmudgeon, persnickety, flummoxed.
In his book, Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing, Ralph Fletcher invites young writers to play with language… purposefully. To develop a love affair with words. As Katie Wood Ray says in her introduction, “Ralph first explains how language play lifts writing, and then he shares specific craft lessons for introducing children to the many ‘tools’ of playfulness.”
What do you call a bear caught in April showers?
A drizzley Bear!
