31 April Fools’ Day Jokes For Teachers To Play At School

For those of us with a sweet tooth, these are among the most evil (yet ultimately harmless!) pranks out there, since many involve healthy food masked as sugary sweets. Of course, once the prank is over, you could always provide a fun treat to reduce the disappointment. Read on to find out how to pull the ultimate April Fools’ prank with food on your students. Note that if your school has strict food guidelines, or if any of your students have food allergies, you’ll want to check with the principal or skip this section altogether.

Pass one out to each student for good performance or good behavior and watch their shocked expressions as they open them.

This one is similar to the Tootsie Roll trick. Your students won’t believe their luck when they receive a lollipop — but oh, the disappointment when they’re opened to reveal broccoli.

Casually pass out packets of “doughnut seeds,” which are actually cereal bits shaped like O's. Tell your students to plant them in their garden in order to grow a crop of their very own doughnuts. This one’s best for the younger crowd!

Your students’ mouths will water as you present a huge donut box. Then, open it to reveal an array of veggies and watch as they lose their minds.

It'll certainly take quite a bit of prep work to wrap each grape in that colorful foil, but it’ll be worth it as your eager students unwrap them, only to find they’ve been duped!

Only in today’s digital age can you pull off some of these crazy, awe-inspiring pranks! Although they take some prep work, these unforgettable April Fools’ Day prank ideas are simply hilarious and can be enjoyed by students of all ages, from elementary school to high school.

Students love computer time during school, so give them a real scare with fake spilled milk on the keyboard. This can be done using a few simple ingredients and following the instructions here.

This is a perfect prank for the ever-texting high school crowd, brought to you by weareteachers.com. You’ll need an accomplice for this one. Find an old cell phone and enlist the help of a student who will use it to pretend to text constantly during class. In a pretend fit of rage, grab the phone from the student and smash it on the ground. Trust us, you’ll have everyone’s attention!

Another amazing prank by the geniuses over at weareteachers.com is the classroom “ghost.” Check out the instructions, but essentially, you’ll use wireless technology and Skype to have a teacher in a different room “take over” your SMART board, convincing your students that there’s a ghost. Solid burn.

Here’s a super-fun prank from squareheadteachers.com that will have your students scratching their heads: “‘Accidentally’ show a list of silly files on your computer when you’re getting your projector hooked up. For example, name files 'Teachers who might be vampires’ or ‘Celebrity Visits at Our School.’”

Act completely casual and watch the hilarity ensue.

Here are some super-simple April Fools’ Day jokes you can play using just the items in your classroom. There’s almost no prep work involved, but your students will love these just the same.

Before your students come in, turn all the desks so that they’re facing the back of the classroom. Then begin teaching as if it’s no big deal.

Here’s a cute idea from squareheadteachers.com: Before your students come in, switch all of the chairs with those in a kindergarten classroom so they’re all much smaller than the students are used to. Sit back and watch their hilarious reactions!

This is a great prank for elementary classrooms, again from squareheadteachers.com. Have all the students sit at different desks in the morning, which isn’t entirely unusual, since most teachers do change seating arrangements on occasion. Let the fun begin when your students are again searching for their desks after recess, lunch, or both!

Have your students howling with laughter when you use zip ties to tie their chair legs to their desks. Just be sure to help them when it comes time to cut their chairs free!

A variation of the above prank is to entirely remove all the chairs and act like nothing happened. Some will laugh, some will cry, and some will just sit on their desks.

Get your students laughing with these silly April Fools' Day pranks that are super easy to do and are guaranteed to have them laughing. Choose one (or several!) of these jokes if you’re looking to pull off a prank that’s cheap or even free.

Purchase a “shocking pen” from a gag-gift store and set it next to a piece of paper at the front of the classroom. Tell students to come up and sign their name on the paper for any reason of your choice. Watch as they try to figure out why the pen is shocking them.

Create a silly, gross, or crazy cafeteria menu for the month of April and post it or pass it out to students. This one is guaranteed to get some hilarious reactions!

Here’s a great one from BuzzFeed: If your school will allow it, use tape to attach a party popper to your classroom door, then tape the string to the other side of the door frame. It’ll pop when a student enters the classroom, giving them quite a surprise! Even funnier? Get your students in on this one, and catch someone else entering your room by surprise. Your students will howl with laughter.

From 9gag.com, create a bunch of tickets that say “Free Ticket: It’s not good for anything, it’s just free” and print them out. Hand them to students, who will wonder what they’re good for. Or, have a classroom contest with these tickets as the prizes. Why do this? Why not! It’s April Fools’ Day!

Even high schoolers can appreciate a well-played prank. They may not react as adorably as the younger set, but trust us, they’ll be psyched that you made the effort to do something fun and unusual for them.

Tell your students there’s a pop quiz. Hand out a sheet of paper that has lots of random questions; at least 50. Tell them explicitly to read the entire quiz before beginning. Have the last question say, “Don’t answer the questions. Write your name and turn this in.” See which students are good at following directions.

Using the tutorial here, cut out a huge bug and put it in the fluorescent light in your classroom. Your students are sure to be creeped out by this awesome April Fools’ Day joke.

Halfway through class, suddenly “remember” that the class has an important assignment due. Make this prank less obvious by tapping half the class to come up and turn the “assignment” in, but be sure to have a random mix of performers so you don’t single out students who don’t perform as well in school. Follow these instructions for how to pull off this funny prank from weareteachers.com.

Plan a real pop quiz into your lesson plans for this day, then when you announce it, your students will predictably say, “Haha, yeah, right, April Fools’.” Then proceed to really give them a quiz.

Be sure to check with the office and principal ahead of time for this one! Send students to the office who normally wouldn’t be sent, for silly things like looking at you funny or breathing too loudly. They’ll get a laugh even if they do figure it out before they leave the classroom.

Write down the names of several students on the board with random information next to each name, like dates, letters, or short, nonsensical phrases. If asked about the significance of the names, say, "We'll discuss it later" in an ominous tone.

We can’t forget our littlest friends on this super-fun day! Even the preschool set can enjoy a joke every now and then, and today is no exception. Here’s a list of very simple, easy-to-understand April Fools’ Day pranks for kids in preschool.

When the children gather on the carpet first thing in the morning, move your mouth like you’re speaking but don’t actually say anything. Kids love this classic trick!

Bring your classroom to life and watch your littles giggle by affixing googly eyes to everything you can think of. Doorknobs, fruit, and trash cans make particularly funny choices.

Delight your classroom of tots with fake “peas and carrots” made out of cut-up orange Starburst and green Skittles.

Serve Jell-O in clear plastic cups with straws inserted so they look like juice. Watch the hilarity ensue as the kids try to drink it. Be sure to provide spoons after the joke’s over unless you want some major tantrums on your hands!

At snack time, serve students a fake over-easy egg using a peach cut in half and plopped into the middle of a plateful of vanilla yogurt. Both funny and healthy, this April Fools’ Day joke is a winner!

Stick gummy worms in apples for a fun and semi-healthy snack for your preschoolers.

The brown “E” is a preschool classic, and for good reason! Tell your students that you’ll be giving them a brownie, and then hand them each a brown “E” made with construction paper. Watch as they try to figure it out!

If you’ve been inspired to pull some of these great April Fools’ Day pranks on your students this year, please SHARE this article with your friends who may want to do the same!