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I’ve never had a student be malicious toward me on April Fool’s Day, but sometimes I get a tired of little kids “jokes”.
“There’s a spider on your head!”
“Hey, your shoe’s untied!”
If you’re a teacher (particularly of younger grades) you know what I’m talking about!
With that being said, I played a bit of a trick on my students last year…
I super glued a quarter and a nickel to the sidewalk just outside of my building! (The Kindergarten building was separate from the rest of the school.) The kids picked and picked and picked, but they couldn’t get those darn coins to come up!!
I was rolling! Although of course I had to keep my laughter in for a little bit so they would keep trying. Finally, I had to shout, “APRIL FOOL’S!”
It was a blast! Even better – one of the adults I worked with also tried to pick them up and couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t get them! lol
Now – I am NOT a mean person, but I see nothing wrong with a good joke once in awhile. And I got the “ok” from my principal and custodian before I did this. Which, I’m glad I did, because it took almost a month before those darn coins came off! I had tried scraping them off and everything else I could think of, but they finally came off about 5 weeks later with the rain.
Have you ever played an April Fool’s trick on your students?
~HoJo~
I'm also happy it's on the weekend. I think one time I told the kids specials was cancelled.
Journey of a Substitute Teacher
We did this at the mall as teenagers and the janitor must have done it before, because all cool, he walked up with his scraper, swiped that thing right off in no time flat and was on his way. He barely missed a step.
I don't like all the lies on April Fool's day, either. We teach kids not to lie, and then there is one day it's okay? no. Practical jokes? now THAT is what April 1st is all about.
Now THAT is adorable!!! 😀
I "found" a bird's nest with the "eggs" (Easter candy eggs) still in it. And being all upset, we talked about what to do about them, especially after watching the baby eagles that hatched this week. Then I said Oh well, I'll just eat them. And popped them in my mouth.
APRIL FOOLS!!!
I am loving these ideas for future years! Keep them coming! And thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!! =)
We have drill cards by the doors in our rooms- Code Blue = Fire Drill; Code Purple = Tornado Drill, etc. I told the kids that we had to add a Code Green = Flood Drill (we are 100% land-locked with no risk of major flooding). I proceeded to read the directions on the card in a very formal manner and had the kids follow the directions- stand on their chairs, practice "swimming" by moving their arms, make sure to swim in a single file line in ABC order like we do for other drills, showing them the best point to access the gym roof. Finally, one of my fifth graders said, "Mrs. Moore, is this really for real?” It was hilarious. Those kids are in high school now but they still remember that April Fools. Priceless! 🙂
After a student "got me" with, "Ms. Lee your earring is missing." and I grabbed my ear to check… I secretly took out one of my earrings. Kids started saying, "Ms. Lee your earring is missing." I just said, "Funny. You are going to have to be more original, because Kaylee already 'got me' on that joke." They were beside themselves as they tried to convince me to just go and check in the mirror and that they were telling the truth, etc etc.
I tell my students about the Lirpa Loof bird that comes out in early spring usually the first week of April. I ask them how many have seen the Lirpa Loof bird? I then have them tell me what it looks like because I've never seen one but I try. I make up a special call that they must do in the wind to attract the Lirpa Loof bird. Then at the end of the day I write Lirpa Loof on the board and say….What if I changed these letters to go the opposite way…April Fool! They LOVE it. Each year as they go to other grades they come up to me and say Have you seen a Lirpa Loof bird this week??
Trish in WV
One year I stapled the morning worksheets shut on all sides. When the kids tried to tell me, I just kept saying, "I already gave the instructions. This is work time, not talking time." They were beside themselves!
I love this idea! You are so much fun!!
~Fern
You folks are cracking me up! I can't wait to use all of these great ideas in the future!! I especially love the Lirpa Loof! lol 😉
I love to play April Fool's jokes on my kids! I hated missing it the past couple of years, lol. One time I switched their books around to other desks. I had to crack up as I watched them look at the book and wonder why it looked so weird or had weird writing in it. Then one time I taped their chairs to their desks, so they couldn't pull them out. Another time I put tape on the opening of their desks so they would go to get something out of their desks and feel tape. They had to take it off to get in their desks. Another year the fourth grade teacher and I pretended that we were upset with each other. We were really good friends, but that day we barely talked to each other and were short with each other. Then at the end of the day we pretended to be more upset with each other and I threw a cup of water on her…well, that's what the kids thought was going to happen, but the cup was filled with confetti and we both yelled April Fool's to the kids. They were shocked, but were pretty impressed with our acting skills. I also have copied some worksheets from FamilyFun.com. They have a maze that cannot be solved, then a word search where none of the words are in the word search except for April Fools. The other sheet is an unscramble the word sheet, and it is just April Fools written differently 10 times. (Ex. sapr oofli, lsofiraopl, rilap losof, etc.) Maybe I enjoy it a little too much, but the kids do get a kick out of it by the end of the day. They will sometimes comment that they didn't know teacher's got that into it, lol.
I love your idea with the coins, I might have to try that next year, lol! And I do love the Lirpa Loof idea too! So fun!
3rd Grade Times
Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam feedback? If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or anything you can recommend? I get so much lately it's driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.
For the life of me I can't remember where I got the tutorial that I used to set up my comments… Darn! (I really need to start a page with great tutorials that I use to help with blogging!) Anyway, I find that blogger blocks most of the spam messages. When I go into comments I can see many that are published, but many of the "iffy" ones are in the spam filter. Actually, your comment ended up there as well. So I don't have a problem with spammers – other than the e-mail notifications I get that are junk. Sorry I can't be more help!
I cut out some brown “e”s one year & put in a covered cake pan & told them they could have brownies after lunch. They were so unhappy -but they really were brown e’s.
I did the same thing!!! 🙂 I also brought a pan of real brownies for after the fact, but I let them whine about it for a good ten minutes before I got the real ones out. 😉