Do you like a lighthearted and fun prank? Do you have students that enjoy a good laugh? Are you looking for a way to celebrate April Fools’ Day? We were always struggling with ways to prank our students in a fun and caring way, and we’ve come up with a few great ones over the past few years.
If you have the kind of relationship with your students where everyone can enjoy a lighthearted, silly prank, then you’re doing something right. We are very clear with our students about what does or does not make for a good prank.
Ninja Note: If you are a student currently looking for an answer to a prank, sorry, but you’re out of luck. You can search our site high and low, but you will not find the answers. It’s ok. You tried. If we had a prize to give you, we would.
Very Specific Personalities Love Pranks
So, if you’re here to tell us that pranking is mean, we hear you but respectfully disagree. It all comes down to the relationship with your students. Our pranks do not embarrass, demean, or hurt anyone. We only prank the classes that we have a strong enough relationship with that they will not be hurt.
Here are our pranking rules:
- Do no physically hurt anyone. If someone gets injured, it’s not a prank. That is an assault. We’re very clear that any prank cannot hurt someone.
- Do not damage property. If something that belongs to someone is going to be ruined, then it’s not a prank. That is vandalism.
- The target of the prank needs to be a willing participant. By this, we mean the target enjoys being pranked. If you know someone who doesn’t like pranks, do not prank them.
- It needs to be silly, not harmful. The prank shouldn’t target a person’s weakness or be too personal. When a prank targets someone with personal information that will embarrass them, it’s not a prank – it’s just mean.
- If you dish it, be prepared to deal with it. This means a few things to us. First, if you are willing to prank someone, then you are giving permission for someone to prank you. Second, if the prank goes awry for some reason, be prepared to make amends and resolve any issues.
How have we pranked our students?
We wanted to share our pranks with you so your students can enjoy the fun without having to take much extra time to prepare a prank.
Wordless Word Search
We kept it simple the first year we created a prank. It was a word search puzzle with none of the words hidden in the puzzle. It includes two different versions along with an “answer key.” Find this free prank on TpT or our BN Shop.
We discovered shortly after posting it online that students were coming to our site to try to find the answer key. So, that’s why we haven’t posted it here.
Mathless Math Problems
We often hear about how our students are struggling with math story problems, so it wasn’t hard to come up with a set of truly confusing questions. We made up an entire set of questions that will prank your math students. The problems make absolutely no sense! Here is a sample question: Kate has four oranges. Lia has three bananas. Andre has five apples. Who has the grapes?
You can get your own copy of this prank for free. We can’t wait to see what happens with your students, so be sure to let us know! If you’re already on our email list, you can find this resource and many more activities in our Resource Library.
Neverending Maze
We created a few mazes, one for younger students and one for your older students, but neither maze comes with an answer key…because there’s no way out! (Insert ninja laughter here). If your students say they’ve found a way out, don’t be fooled. That’s a trick! You can download that one for free from our TpT Store or BN Shop.
We had a few students try to prank us with the exact same prank. They created mazes of their own, but let’s just say they didn’t quite look as professional.
Origami Snowball
After a few years, we had to change up our strategy a bit because our students were on to us. Some of the older siblings warned our new students. Our pranks were becoming a little notorious.
This one is the instructions for making a ball of paper, and it comes with a story to accompany it. The Legend of Itazura and Yuki No Tama (loosely translated it means the legend of the prank and the snowball) is written just for your students (from the clever minds of the ninjas). You can download that one for free in our BN Shop.
It comes with instructions to make an origami snowball along with a legend to read to your students.
This prank can cause a little frustration when it’s time to make the snowball because it’s a long list of convoluted instructions (that is the whole prank). So, if you have students that might not handle this level of frustration well, prepare them in advance. We’ve let a few students in on the prank to prevent a full-blown reaction.
Illogical Logic Puzzle
We love logic puzzles and so do our students. One day a student was struggling and complained that logic puzzles are illogical. Well, that sparked an idea. We made a puzzle that has no solution. It looks like all of our other logic puzzles, so students won’t be on to you until they actually try to solve it.
You can find the illogical puzzle in our Resource Library, or we can send it to you when you join our email list.
Pranks are a Chance to Be Silly and Fun
Now, we tend to play pranks regularly in our classrooms. It’s usually open season about halfway through the year. We usually know when we’re going to be pranked. Kids cannot keep a secret with a straight face. If they’re all sitting perfecting in their desks waiting, something will happen. It’s fun to connect with students having fun.
One year we held an Easter egg hunt with those little plastic eggs. We filled them with rocks. Now, yes, that was mean, but we needed the rocks for an art lesson, so we used them as a lead-in to the lesson. One year we had the hunt and didn’t hide any eggs (Sorry, but I have to go wipe the tears of laughter for a moment).
And on a whim one day, we told our class we were going to play hide and seek in the gym. There is absolutely nowhere to hide in our gymnasium. It’s literally four walls, the floor and the walls. There isn’t even anything to sit on or next to. So, when we said we’d search first and then told them to go hide, we weren’t sure what we would get when we started counting down.
They were pretty clever, laying as flat as possible in various places. That was such a great group of kids. They’re practically grown-ups now.
Sometimes the Prank is On You
Another year I made a mistake when teaching them about animals in the wetlands. I accidentally said a llama lived in the wetlands – a total slip of the tongue, and I fixed it right away, but that class showed up with llamas for the rest of the year. It was like our own little inside joke.
The funniest way they tricked me was the entire class answered every single question on a short quiz with the word llama – even the one who was absent that day. I was very impressed with their coordination efforts. The quiz was just a practice quiz anyway, so no real academic threat existed.
Lastly, a group of students had a particularly “rough” set of words that were used regularly. In an attempt to get the kids to stop using inappropriate language, we came up with a code word. So, instead of swearing, the kids could use this code word to express the language they weren’t allowed to use.
This codeword ended up being woven throughout our school year. The students were the only ones who knew what the code word stood for, so they had a lot of fun with it, attempting to sprinkle it into announcements at school, the school newsletter and even during a performance at an assembly.
And no harm done. 😉
Some pranks for the staff
You can’t just prank your students, but if you’re looking for a few pranks for your fellow teachers, we’ve got you covered.
Glue googly eyes on items in the fridge so that when someone opens it, everything looks right at them. You can also place googly eyes on food, computer screens, school supplies or anything else you can imagine. Use white glue, so it comes off easily and doesn’t do any damage.
Gift wrap a coworker’s desk and all the items on it. Tinfoil works well too.
Fill someone’s office with balloons. Don’t fill them with glitter. 😉
Create a yarn spider web where you tie everything together, making a web that’s tricky to get through.
Place a plastic spider inside a lampshade so that when it is turned on, the silhouette scares the stuffing out of someone.
Place a sticky note over the sensor on someone’s computer mouse.
Use double-sided tape to secure items on a person’s desk. Be sure to be careful about the surfaces and the items so nothing gets ruined.
Find a picture that your coworker will like. Make as many copies as you possibly can and then plaster their workspace.
If your school has an FM system, talk to a coworker over their speaker by hiding with their microphone.
Place interesting items into your school’s trophy case. Be appropriate, but have fun with it.
Most of all, have fun!
Now, of course, if you are going to prank your students, make sure you know them well. Prepare any students who might not react well in advance, so there are no hurt feelings. It is all supposed to be good fun.
And, most of all, you don’t have to save your pranks for an official holiday. Pranks can be fun any time of year.
If you’re looking for some less evil ways to connect with and get to know your students, you should check out our post Getting to Know Your Students or Building Relationships with Your Students. For more activities for your class during spring check out Spring Classroom Activities to Make You Bloom.
If you’re looking for a few funny videos to show your students, Westjet Airlines from Canada has done some great pranks over the years. Just search for them online because they can be lots of fun.
Thanks for all your support, and we hope you have fun pranking your students. We’d love to see their reactions. Tag us on your social media, send us an email or leave us a comment below. We love hearing how your students do with the different pranks.
We’d love to hear some of your best pranks, too. Do you like to be pranked, or do you prefer to do the pranking? Tell us in the comments below.
