At the end of your increasingly heated argument, tell the student, “That’s it! I’ve had it!” and grab the phone and either throw it on the ground, drop it dramatically in a big glass of water, or stomp on it. Give them the broken phone and tell them to pretend to be texting on it during class and then argue with you about handing it over. Then, pick a student who is very reliable and a good actor to be in on your prank. Destroy a fake phoneįirst, grab one of your old, non-working cell phones or ask around (someone you know has one). “No, no, you have to say it much slower.” “An online help forum says to try with a British accent?” I’m giggling just thinking about this one. To start, you have to say, “Activate voice control” loud enough for it to hear, then give different directives. Make an announcement that your districts’ technology provider announced an update that laptops have a voice-activation feature. Tell them their laptops are now voice-activated My favorite (and the one all over Reddit) is filling up an old mayonnaise jar with vanilla pudding, breaking out a spoon, and watching your students freak out when you casually eat straight from the container during class. You can make up a fun reason, too, like, “You guys didn’t hear? They’re shutting down all Wi-Fi networks in the city for maintenance.” Pretend to eat a gross snack But with this list, you can have a different trick for each class all day long! Write on the board that school has been cancelled for April 31 April Fools’ pranks for middle and high school studentsĪt the secondary level, earlier classes will often spoil a prank for later classes in the day. Get it? For a fun twist, you can then serve actual brownies if your school gives you the green light. Then pass out E’s you’ve cut out from brown construction paper. When students arrive, tell them you brought brownies for them to enjoy. Proceed with caution!) Treat your students to brownies Download ours for free! (Note: This one has anxiety potential if you pretend to tie the word search to a grade, a prize, or make it timed. Tell students you have a word search for them to complete, then monitor students as they hunt until they realize that none of the words are in it. Watch how many students lift the paper or bend near the laptop screen to smell it. Put a fake bonus question on a quiz as a scratch-and-sniff option She asked us repeatedly to run laps around the library and pretended to be exasperated when we told her no. teacher typically wore and spent our library time bouncing a tennis ball off the brick wall. The most memorable was our sweet librarian, who came to school in what our P.E. One April Fools’ Day when I was in grade school, lots of faculty members came to school dressed as each other (and stayed in character). Other silly drills: an ice cream glacier drifting toward school, a dragon drill, or an “Anna from Frozen made everything an arctic tundra” drill. Have students practice crossing the room, getting all of their belongings off the floor, etc. Tell students you have a new fun drill to practice just in case the floor turns to lava. When students question the weird seating, pretend to have no idea what they’re talking about. You can stack desks on top of each other, have them facing the opposite direction they usually are, or remove them entirely if you’re close to the library or another place you can temporarily store them. April Fools’ pranks for elementary studentsĪt the elementary level, April Fools’ Day jokes should tend more toward silly surprises. Here are some of my favorite pranks for any age. As with anything in teaching, use your professional discretion as well as your knowledge of your students to determine which jokes are appropriate for your students. That said, I also think gentle teasing and mild pranks can be a way to connect with students in a funny and memorable way (especially if you invite them to prank you back). We shouldn’t be telling students we got fired, pretending our students have failing grades, or having elementary students line up to get their flu shots in the nurse’s office. I should first qualify that I’m not a fan of tricks that might really cause a kid to stress out or panic. But sometimes, like on April 1, I use it for … well, trickery. Sometimes I use trickery for good, like tricking students into thinking grammar is fun. After enriching minds and making a difference in the lives of young people, my next favorite thing about teaching is trickery.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |