April first is known as April Fools’ Day where we live. Generally speaking, harmless pranks and little hoaxes are perpetrated. The cleverer the hoax, the better the children laugh at the end. Use caution though, some children and adults are more sensitive than others and some pranks and hoaxes can be downright cruel or insensitive, so be sure to know your audience before trying any of these ideas!
A Garden Hoax
A few years back I orchestrated my greatest April Fools’ Day hoax ever. We were heavily into a Science study of plants, and gardening was a big part of our every day learning. All month we had been planting seeds into paper pots to transplant in the garden once the soil warmed up, so this prank was an easy and not at all suspicious task. I started the day by reading The Money Tree by Sarah Stewart.
We had a wonderful discussion about the book and wondered aloud if money could really grow on trees. What would be the consequences if it did? After a fair amount of conversation I whispered to the children that I had a very special seed for us to plant today, that it had to be planted before noon and that, if we were very careful with it, might grow into something special.
I had some dry red kidney beans in a silk pouch that I quietly announced were the seeds to a money tree! Lots of clapping and cheering ensued but was quickly replaced by the thousand questions they had.
Where did I get the beans?
How did I know they would grow money?
Would the leaves be the paper money and the roots coins, like potatoes?
Why did they have to be planted before noon?
It didn’t take long for my hoax to be recognized, and we did go ahead and plant the bean seeds! But I can promise you those kids paid waaaay more attention to those seedlings than any other seeds we planted that year!
Want to know more about how to plant seeds with kids, or need some ideas to set this hoax up? Read this blog post about how to plan a seed inquiry and this blog post on how to make paper seed pots.
The internet is full of great prank ideas too! Below are a few of my school-appropriate favourites.
Here is my inspiration board on Pinterest:
Any good ideas you want to share? Feel free to send me your story.