April Fools Day Ideas

[SBracken]

I attached the original word doc, but I wanted to put up a preview. I only teach on wednesdays at one of my schools, and at the request of my co, I did a mini culture lesson on April Fools' Day. My kids FREAKED OUT (without crying, screaming, etc. just a bit of surprised dispair) when I told them they were having a test. I verbally told them to read all directions first (even though it's written), and honestly I was really surprised when they fell for it and started answering questions. I gave them about 3 minutes (so they had done maybe 2 or 3 questions), and said 'Time's up!' *cute second freak out*  My co was laughing so hard and when I explained about our 'holiday' they cracked up too. It also helped that I told them I would be doing the same thing to their classmates later 
(ps: the question in Korean reads, roughly: 'What was the inciting incident in the first Sino-Korean war?')


Directions: Read ALL directions and questions before you start. Write your Korean name, your English name, and the date on the lines.
1.   How many letters are in the alphabet?  _______
2.   What do you want to do this weekend? _____________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
3.   What is the function of a verb?  ___________________________________
4.   What country is Stephanie-teacher from?  _________________
5.   What is the largest city in that country?  ___________________
6.   1차 청일전쟁(중일전쟁)의 계기가 된 사건은 무엇이었는가? (Answer in English.)
_______________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
7.   Stand up.
8.   What is 648*59? _____
9.   ¿Por qué estudias inglés?  _________________________________
10.   Write a short essay on hydraulics and its impact on our society.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
11.   Do not answer any of the above questions. (위에 제시된 어떤 문항에도 답하지
 마시오.) Turn your test over. (시험지를 뒤집으시오.)  __________________________
12.   Smile. (웃으시오.)  _____________________________________________________

[Beki]

A.
I told my students that we were starting class with a spelling test.  The following words were the test:

1.This
2.is
3.not
4.a
5.real
6.spelling
7.test
8.happy
9.April
10.fool's
11.day

Then I got them to read the words together afterwards and they finally got that they had been duped...

B.
I also made my students play this matching game in groups (attached).  The pictures look similar but are not the same so there is no matching pair in the game.  After a few minutes they realized that there are no matching pictures and that's when I said "Happy April fool's day (for tomorrow as I won't be seeing them).

[JessicaFighting]

The first page of this thread shows a BBC hoax video about flying penguins. ()
 I made a quiz to go with the video. I plan to show it as a real news cast and see how many students believe it. I also plan to play 2 truths and 1 lie.

[NickJPrado]

I hid fart noises throughout my PPT's for tomorrow!

(And I stole the empty pizza boxes idea. Then I put cut outs of James Franco's face from Pineapple Express in them with "April Fools'!!!" in big font over it three times.)

[complex303]

Tomorrow I've got 5 students from each of my classes doing things in sync throughout the class.

First, I asked each homeroom teacher to choose 5 of their 'outgoing' students to help me "move some boxes," after school.  When they arrived I told them my plan: 

1. When they hear, "I need a computer clicker,"  these students will yell, "You're crazy!"

2. When they hear, "Now it's time for a song," these students will throw their eraser at the white board.

3.  When they hear, "Here's the exit password," these students will knock their textbook off their desk.

Most of the students are ridiculously excited about it.  A few were concerned that my co-teacher would be upset about it, but she thinks it'll be funny. 

Looking forward to tomorrow!  I'll post an update on if it went well or not.

Update - Only one class actually did it.  It was awesome.  I don't recommend the yelling one though...it's not as anonymous as throwing erasers at the board.  I told the class it was raining erasers and books.

Then, for the exit password I had them say: Today. Is. April. Fool's. Day. There. Is. No. Exit. Password. Have. A. Great. Weekend. 
It was hilarious watching them practice it. A few of the girls finally caught on and told the rest of the class. 

As for the other classes, I think the students were scared or they forgot.  Either way, I made up for it by speaking in Spanish for the first 5 minutes and doing the fake exit password.

[CMTC]

I started April Fools today for the classes I won't see tomorrow.

I told them my friend had a baby and he is really cute especially when he yawns so I made a little video of him.

Then I show them this clip.



My co-teacher has been recording their reactions, priceless!

[gookie]

May I ask how to embed youtube videos onto my powerpoint (2010) slide?

edit, nvm i got it

[notinKS]

I started April Fools today for the classes I won't see tomorrow.

I told them my friend had a baby and he is really cute especially when he yawns so I made a little video of him.

Then I show them this clip.



My co-teacher has been recording their reactions, priceless!

Oh my goodness, I just showed this to my co-teacher and she screamed and fell into a fetal position on the floor!!!

[lauralauramac]

Sorry if something similar to this has been posted already. 

I made a powerpoint that could tie in with April Fools.  Some of the slides have 'facts' and students have to decide if something is 'true' or 'false'.  You can find out yourself by clicking on the true/false buttons.  True is ;"woohoo" and false is "doh."  The formula is the same for the second part of the ppt; except they have to decide if the pictures are fake or real.

I made it for my 6th graders.  Tested it with a class today and i they seemed to enjoy it lots.  It isn't too fancy.  My computer is dying and it crashed numerous times whilst i was trying to make it.    We skipped the anagram slide though, i decided last minute it'd be too difficult, even with the worksheet. 
.
As a warmer:  A couple of weeks ago for 'Where are you From' we used someones "where's Wally ppt (thank you to whoever it was who posted) and then i got them to find a small paper wally hidden in the classroom.  Tomorrow, my co-teacher will introduce the class alone and will ask the students to find Wally.  They'll be looking on the walls and I'm going to sit under my desk (waiting), kitted out in Wallesque attire (i have a beany and stripy top from a fancy dress party a couple of years ago).

[karenology]

I am currently removing candies from wrappers and replacing them with garlic cloves. hehe

[KiddieCAT]

ok. JUST had this idea this morning, which is almost too late, but it can be done for monday's classes~ or the later classes in the day.

you would need some Korean help, BUT I'm going to have my coteacher write a short letter in Korean for the students to read, basically saying that SMOE has decided that "to help students become more multicultural and to encourage multiple language-learners, we have decided (effective April 1st) that students in Elementary school will now be taught a European language. Therefore, (your school) has approved the (language you know, I know French, but you could also try pig-latin or something)_____ language to be taught once a week instead of having just English classes."

HAAHHAHA! I plan to teach the first 5 minutes of class in French while we watch their puzzled faces try to figure out what we wanted them to do!  I'm not fluent in French, but they won't know the difference!

HOPE THIS HELPS--

[CMTC]

I am currently removing candies from wrappers and replacing them with garlic cloves. hehe

Fantastic I love that 

[Matty W]

It's a bit late at this point but I'm doing two things.

1. Empty pizza boxes. Brilliant idea someone else had.

2. Orson Welles style War of the Worlds martian invasion. Put up an article of the internet talking about zombies walking down the eastern coast of Korea down to my town. "This just started this morning! After you guys came to school!" Have a friend call me mid-class to tell me they've taken over her town. My Middle Class students are captive, don't have cellphones in class, they'll have to believe it.

[iMissSalt]

I'm kinda horrified to watch the baby video. Can someone tell me EXACTLY what happens so i can prepare myself?

[karenology]

I am currently removing candies from wrappers and replacing them with garlic cloves. hehe

Fantastic I love that 

It's already worked on some of my students this morning.  What gets me is that they even told me, "Teacher it's Fool Day," and then proceeded to ask for the tempting candy that is just sitting on my desk.  I even made them repeat what day it is before I gave them the "candy."  Not sure if the joke will continue to have legs, as they ended up taking some extra to prank their friends.  :)

[hamburglar]

I showed my 4th Grade CT the baby video, he said no.

Back to the drawing board. Anyone got ideas for 4th grade elementary school?

[scottdk]

I've been doing something different for each class.  This one I'm doing for the last class because.... i don't want to look weird all day.  This will make me look stupid but I still think it will be lots of fun.  I'm going to turn all the desk around so they face the back of the room. I'm going to change my clothes so they are on backwards and put my glasses on the back of my head.  I will stand in front of them (or back to them) and proceed to start class speaking backwards.

[Kuhle]

To Hambugler

I got all my clips from youtube...just type in 'April fools day pranks'...if you follow, can find some baby ones that could work.

[portlandzach]

I just did the 'pop up scary face' video from youtube.....was so classic...I'm surprised their screams did not break the windows....ha ha....i would recommend this...hahahahahahaha

[teacher_del]

I'm kinda horrified to watch the baby video. Can someone tell me EXACTLY what happens so i can prepare myself?

The baby yawns and simultaneously fades into a screaming grey face.