Continuing the series on 365 Days of Literacy for Kids with Put On Your Thinking Cap. Your kids will be “dressed” with IDIOMS during the month of September.
Put On Your Thinking Cap
IDIOMS are phrases that reveal “secrets” from the past. This specific idiom, Put On Your Thinking Cap is an old one. IDIOMS come from many sources, many languages, many authors, many cultures. The “hidden” meanings in IDIOMS are great fun for kids, but also teach important, interesting and intriguing lessons in how language has developed and evolved over time.
Each SEPTEMBER IDIOM on 365 Days of Literacy for Kids will address something to do with clothing… such as teaching kids the meaning of the put on your thinking cap idiom.
The idiom put your thinking cap on means to think about something, attempt to solve a problem, take careful consideration, figure something out.
The Origin of put on your thinking cap is probably what you wouldn’t expect! It’s all about researching and when I came across it, it made me smile. The Idiom: Put on your thinking cap comes from the term considering cap from as far back as the 17th century. Did such caps really exist? Not likely. But the term is visual enough to catch the attention of kids.
Whenever kids (or even adults) are having a difficult time solving a problem or figuring something out, a way to focus is to actually think about putting on your thinking cap… figuratively! When you stop and think about it, it’s probably funny for kids to think that they actually have to put on a cap to think about something! Almost as if they wouldn’t be able to come up with the answer unless they had on their cap.
Sometimes an expressive idiom such as this one communicates exactly what a child needs to do. Dress your kids for back-to-school success with knowledge and attention to this super fun idiom. It’s just a fun way of expressing something, but it’s also a cool way for kids to look at something, too. I’m all about teaching the best way possible, so for me – I thought this was a cute way to think about it for kids.
Stop and ask the kids in your life these questions:
- Do you have a cap to put on for thinking?
- Have you ever heard of this before?
- How would you use this idiom in a sentence?
- Had you ever heard of this before?
- What did you actually think if meant before you read the actual meaning behind it.
- Would you use this idiom in your real life?
Think of it this way, What is a thinking cap? The actual definition of thinking cap. : a state or mood in which one thinks —usually used in the phrase put one’s thinking cap on.
Take a few minutes each day in SEPTEMBER to teach the secrets of IDIOMS to your kids & grandkids. Understanding IDIOMS is a wonderful way to enrich reading and language development.
I’m not just talking through my hat!
I hope you’re enjoying some of these fun idioms that I’m sharing with you! I think it’s fun to be able to think about where certain phrases came from and record it for people to read. As a teacher for 30+ years, it always made me smile to see my students connect with something. I think of that all the time when I’m writing my blog posts!
Make sure you keep reading what else I have coming up, too! I promised a full month of these, so I can’t wait to share them with you as I go through each day of the month!
Head over to YouTube.com to check out some of the fun videos people have made about putting on your thinking cap!
