It's not too early to think about pranking our kids

[karenology]

I really really really want to get them good for April Fool's Day, but so far have no ideas other than removing all the chairs from the classroom, or maybe hiding surprise "spiders" in the desks or something.  Anyone got any ideas?

[vitamin-d]

If you don't have a co-teacher you could pretend to have a heart attack...

[misskris]

tell them they have a surprise exam. that should get them good lol

[travelinpantsgirl]

This would be fun to do, but I am curious did you already introduce the concept of April Fool's or is this the way you are introducing it?
I would like to try this. What grade are your students?

[karenology]

I think they might already know about April Fool's, but I'm not sure.  I don't plan on introducing it, because that would ruin the prank obviously. :)  I teach 1st, 2nd and 3rd in middle school. 

[tfuller]

You could try something like this for a student in every class. My co-teacher and i were in tears

[peasgoodnonsuch]

Haha! I did something like this for my halloween lesson, but even though some of the kids knew about it, it still got them good! I used the classic Maze with the exorcist girl.

http://www.winterrowd.com/maze/

Even though I've seen it at least 7 times, it still creeps me out!

[travelinpantsgirl]

Where can get a video like that? The one that scares them? I mean I know Youtube but anyone know what to search under?

You could try something like this for a student in every class. My co-teacher and i were in tears

[Rowanteacher]

That maze thing is horrible, I'd be worried that my students would wet themselves in my classroom!

[Yu_Bumsuk]

I really freaked out my kids with this on Halloween:

[roger2424]

I think that the maze+grotesquerie is a shallow and pointless prank not likely to improve the quality of most children's lives.

I remember in Grade Three when Missus Gillies surprised us all with a test. "When you're done bring it to me." It was hard! A collection of general interest trivia. I answered all the questions, but I wasn't first. At the end she gave an award of some sort to the first person who had finished, and held up her paper. It was blank except for her name. Then Miz Gillies pointed to the instruction "Write your name on the paper and then read the following questions carefully." It was an April Fool, you weren't "instructed" to answer the questions, just read them. She gave another award to the students who actually did answer all the questions, for their misbegotten effort.

[kaymac]

I told my students last year we were having a Speaking Quiz. I had a powerpoint like I normally would for a lesson, explaining how the test would work. They all read it and stared in shock. In one class one boy who usually speaks as little as possible just started yelling, "Hey! Hey! Fool Day!!" You could maybe tell them you are leaving to go back to your country...though if they were to start to cheer that'd be a bummer!

[karenology]

I can't get the maze thing to work?  Maybe that's for the best since I don't necessarily want my students to pee their pants in my classroom.  haha

[travelinpantsgirl]

I can't either. I thought it was me.

I can't get the maze thing to work?  Maybe that's for the best since I don't necessarily want my students to pee their pants in my classroom.  haha

[siamagoo]

Last year, I had a student come to the front to "practice commands". There was a chair. Stand up. Sit down. Stand up. Sit down. Then I pulled the chair out from under them.

Big laughs, simple, no prep, and translates well!

[Rowanteacher]

I can't get the maze thing to work?  Maybe that's for the best since I don't necessarily want my students to pee their pants in my classroom.  haha

You need to get to about halfway through the very narrow part on level 3.

[karenology]

I can't even get the maze to work at all, in Chrome or in IE6.  Any time I move the mouse, it goes back to the "play" screen.

Oh nevermind, I figured it out - you have to continuously hold down the mouse button for it to work! Bahaha...I will use this to scare the bejeezus out of my 2nd graders.  Probably need a milder prank for my 1st graders though!

[Ectofuego]

I like the faking the heart attack idea, ill do that in my drama class.  Toy spiders for my phonics kids..  Im thinking for my older kids, when they come into the classroom, ill hide under the desk so they wont see me or something..i dunno yet

[fudoose]

Classic from the Beeb, my co-teacher still thinks penguins can fly!

[cassie]

For those of us using the J.L. Haas series books for Grade 3 middle school, an entire chapter is dedicated to April Fools Day. We should prank early if we want to get them!