I’ve met a rival punner. He’s a ten year old in one of my primary classes.
After a fairly quiet term he’s now come out of his shell and revealed a solid level of wordplay. Last week he offered these gems (bear in mind this is a ten year old ‘elementary’ level learner!):
Me: Right, let’s hear about this man’s trip to Antarctica. It’s REALLY cool.
Kid: Teacher Pete it will be cool
Me: Yeah it will…
Kid: I know
Me: How do you know?
Kid: because it’s about Antarctica, and Antarctica is cool!
(cue me adding ‘Good Joke’ as a plus point on ClassDojo)
Later, when we had just finished a game…
Me: Ok, so… total scores. Team 1?
Team 1: Ten
Me: Ten, good stuff. Team 2. Total?
Kid: It’s not here
Me: no… total score… how many points did you get?
Kid: no total
Me: why?
Kid: my turtle got no points. I have a pet turtle. He got zero. We got 8.
The second one stumped me, until he did that thing I do when I make a really tenuous pun. You know… ‘total…turtle… get it?!’
It’s brilliant that one of my students is trying to make jokes in English at such a young age! Next lesson I’m going to bring out some of my very best Christmas cracker jokes to see if he’s up for a pun-off:
How do you service a pogo stick? Give it a spring clean…
Categories: General, reflections
ELT Planning 
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