5 Surprising Benefits of Using Jokes in the Classroom Each Day

Laughter is so powerful! When you add humor into your teaching, you’re just not just creating smiles— you’re creating connections. Using jokes in the classroom helps you build a positive classroom community, encourage communication among peers, and sneak in learning opportunities in ways your students won’t even realize. Start your morning with a Joke of the Day for a simple but impactful way to make your classroom a happier, stronger, and smarter place for everyone!  

What is a Joke of the Day?

A Joke of the Day is exactly what it sounds like— a lighthearted, kid-friendly joke that you share with your students each morning.

You can include a Joke of Day during Morning Meeting, display it on your board as students enter the classroom, or make it part of your literacy lesson.

Jokes encourage stronger creativity, problem solving, inferencing, critical thinking, conversation skills, and so much more! 

When you introduce the daily routine of using jokes in the classroom, you’re giving your students something exciting to look forward to each day. It sets a positive tone for the morning, builds anticipation for the rest of the school day, and creates shared experiences that unite your students together into a stronger community!

Make It Easy on Yourself

Use the Joke of the Day Resource to make this fun routine stress-free for you. 

This resource includes a FULL YEAR of kid-friendly jokes with handwriting practice built right in using matching handwriting practice pages. 

You can also pair the jokes with Editable Morning Meeting Daily Slides to integrate each day’s joke seamlessly into your morning routine.

5 Surprising Benefits of Using Jokes in the Classroom

Now, for a little more information about five of the surprising benefits of using jokes with your students:

1. Build Classroom Community Through Laughter

First, nothing truly connects people faster than sharing a laugh. When your students have even just one giggle together after they hear a silly riddle or punny punchline, they start to feel like a team. 

Shared humor helps kids develop empathy by tuning into each other’s feelings. When they’re more in touch with each other, you’ll see them begin to enjoy their time together more!

Using jokes in the classroom also helps students bond with you! They don’t see you only as the one who teaches and disciplines them, but the one who is silly, fun, and approachable. 

Over time, these connections translate into stronger relationships and a more positive classroom community for everyone!

2. Strengthen Vocabulary and Language Skills

Jokes are also great opportunities to strengthen vocabulary and language skills without kids knowing they are learning! 

When students hear a joke, they have to think about double meanings, new words, or homophones. 

And when kids don’t understand a joke right away, they learn to be resilient as they keep trying. Jokes help them learn to be persistent and have flexible thinking skills, too!

3. Boost Listening and Comprehension Skills

Jokes also teach your students to pay attention, process details, and make connections.

To “get” the Joke of the Day, your students have to listen carefully to the setup then connect it to the punchline. This is great comprehension practice!

When kids don’t immediately understand a joke, they are motivated to figure it out and will often ask for clarification from their classmates.

These peer teaching moments naturally strengthen communication and listening skills while also helping students feel more comfortable asking for help when they need it— all of this is so important for SEL growth!

4. Encourage Positive Communication and Social Skills

Another one of the surprising benefits of using jokes in the classroom is how much kids want to repeat them to each other! 

As soon as they’ve heard a joke, they’re ready to share it with classmates, you, and other friends or teachers at school. 

This retelling helps them practice important communication skills like remembering details, sequencing, and speaking clearly. 

It also builds confidence and social skills! It feels so empowering to successfully tell a joke and make others laugh. Your shyest student finds a voice, and your outgoing student has a safe outlet for their humor. 

5. Create a Joyful, Dependable Routine 

Finally, adding a Joke of the Day adds the predictability to your classroom routine that kids so deeply thrive on.

Your students begin to know what to expect, and better yet, they know what’s coming is loads of fun! 

Even on the toughest of mornings, laughter can shift the mood in your room. A silly joke helps break tension, encourages everyone to smile, and reminds you all that school IS fun! 

The balance of joy and structure is key to creating a safe, welcoming, and supportive classroom community. 

How to Get Started with Jokes in the Classroom

You really don’t have to be a stand-up comedian to make this routine work! All you need is a simple system. Start by deciding when you will share your Joke of the Day— like Morning Meeting.

Then, display it on your board or print it out for students to copy as a way to work on handwriting practice. 

You can take it one step further by assigning a “joke teller of the day” who gets to read the joke aloud for everyone. Then, use the FREE Kids Jokes Craft & Writing Activity to let students write and illustrate their own jokes to share with each other. 

Adding jokes to the classroom isn’t just about getting more laughs— it’s about building positive connections, supporting SEL, strengthening important skills, and creating joy that lasts. So go ahead and start tomorrow with a Joke of the Day and a smile! Your classroom will feel brighter, happier, and more connected before you know it. 

Let me know if you have any questions about anything you see here. Don’t forget to pin this post to refer to it later!

Other posts you may enjoy:

How to Use Humor in Your Classroom to Create a Positive Learning Environment

Easy HOW TO: Maximizing Your Classroom Management Skills with Morning Meeting

How Social Skills Stories Build the Positive Classroom Climate You Are Craving