April Fool's Day is a fun time for middle school students because it is a stage and grade with lots of creative and funny energy. Middle schoolers laugh at most things, so coming at them with simple yet colorful jokes is an effective way to engage them. April Fool's Day is the perfect time to tickle their humor and their minds to promote great learning in the springtime!
Here are twenty activities to help your middle school students get the most out of the April Fool holiday.
1. Fake Word Search
If you like the idea of pranking your students for April Fool's Day and you need some last-minute ideas for the minor holiday, then this fake word search is perfect! Simply print it and give it to the students. Tell them the first person to find 5 words wins, and watch the hilarity ensue.
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
2. Prank News Article
This is the most popular of all April Fool's Day ideas, and you can make the article about whatever is most interesting to your class and subject area. See how long it takes for your students to figure out that it's actually a fake new article.
Learn more: Market Research Telecast
3. Brown Es
This is the class jokes competition. Give every student a chance to tell their best joke, and see who has the funniest one. Classmates can vote on the best joke, and the laughs will continue long after April Fool's Day and throughout the spring semester. Here are some jokes for you to keep in your back pocket.
Learn more: Distractify
4. Who Has Funny Jokes?
This is the class jokes competition. Give every student a chance to tell their best joke, and see who has the funniest one. Classmates can vote on the best joke, and the laughs will continue long after April Fool's Day and throughout the spring semester. Here are some jokes for you to keep in your back pocket.
Learn more: Distractify
5. Elements of Humor Lesson
No, this isn't teaching students how to be funny. Instead, it's teaching them how to recognize elements of humor, such as irony and exaggeration, in their favorite literature and films. It will help them read, understand, think, and write more critically as well. It's especially effective for advanced students.
Learn more: Read, Write, Think
6. Answer Key for the Next Quiz
Give the students the answer sheets for their next quiz. However, make the answers outrageous and have the students guess what the questions might be. This will help you get a better idea of what your students grasp from your lessons so far; it's a type of formative assessment.
Learn more: Edutopia
7. History of April Fool's Day
This April Fool's Day passage takes students through the history of the holiday and offers several educational resources for studying it. It can be a great basis for a writing assignment, and it can help especially with descriptive writing skills when writing about history.
Learn more: History
8. Donut Seeds
In this activity, Cheerios are presented as donut seeds that students can plant to grow actual glazed donuts. Some students might see right through it, but all of the students will have some fun with a springtime donut party!
Learn more: Printables 4 Mom
9. Bird Calls Prank
Give students an informative reading passage and comprehension worksheet about a beautiful bird that can only be seen on the first day of April. Then, encourage students to walk around outside making bird calls to try to find this elusive bird. It's a fun time and an effective reading comprehension activity!
Learn more: Teach Junkie
10. Scientific Answers to Jokes
April Fool's Day can be a great time to revisit classic jokes like "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and "Knock, knock, who's there?" These questions can be answered with some ecology and biology; use these classic joke prompts as a way to start an April Fool's Day science lesson.
Learn more: NBC News
11. April Fool's Day Scavenger Hunt
This reading and literacy activity uses the total physical response to get students more engaged in the project. It features several fun activities that will get your middle school students moving around and getting interested in reading during the spring semester.
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
12. Joke of the Day Activity
This activity extends beyond April Fool's Day and keeps kids laughing throughout the entire school year. It's one of the students' favorite spring activities because it lets them start the day laughing, which can lead to better learning for everyone.
Learn more: Chit Chat and Small Talk
13. Lunch Time April Fool's Day Pranks
These are some silly pranks that your kids will love -- at lunchtime! You can add gummy worms, wax lips, and other goodies to your kids' lunchbox to help them enjoy every minute of April Fool's Day.
Learn more: My Mix of 6
14. April Fool's Day Poems
Here is a collection of poems and activities that are lots of fun. You can pair them with a sentence prompt or silly discussions -- the important thing is that the students are engaging with these little poems, and maybe even drawing some inspiration for ideas for classroom jokes!
Learn more: Woo! Jr.
15. Printable and Digital Activity for April Fool's Day
This pack gives you printables and digital content that you can use in the classroom on April Fools' Day. The interactive resources are great for getting kids interested in the holiday, and holding their interest throughout the whole day.
Learn more: Think, Grow, Giggle
16. Hoax Lesson Plan
This is a reading and critical thinking exercise that has kids reading a text, analyzing its content, and then working together to rank the information together. It's a complete lesson plan that covers many great twenty-first-century skills.
Learn more: Teacher Planet
17. April Fool's Math Lessons
This is one of those resource types that always gets middle school students interested. It uses some arithmetic tricks that seem like a magic trick or a joke, and kids will have fun trying to figure out how it all works.
Learn more: Pedago Net
18. Ideas for Classroom Pranks
This packet includes some great setups and ideas for classroom pranks that will also help to spark academic discussion in the classroom. Plus, many of these great ideas can be transferred to the digital classroom, as well!
Learn more: Teaching with Jennifer Findley
19. Impossible Questions Without Answers
This video starts with what sounds like a joke but then offers deep insight and interesting new perspectives. It's perfect for middle school students who are just learning about who they are as individuals, and it's a great introduction to a dozen other topics.
Learn more: TED-Ed
20. Ted-Ed Riddles
Once the pranks and jokes are finished for the day, you can shift to mind-blowing riddles and logic puzzles with this playlist of videos. Each video gives all the clues you need to solve it, plus the answer and how to solve it. It's great for boosting critical thinking and some math skills, too.
Learn more: TED-Ed