1. “What’s Wrong With The School Water?!”
For this one, fill a clear drinking glass with with rubbing alcohol and set it up front. When you are ready to start class or students are working on bell work, bring out a few ice cubes and drop them in your “water.” (The ice cubes will sink instead of float because the ice is more dense than the rubbing alcohol). Start yelling to the class “Something is wrong with the school water! Look at my ice cubes!” and see their reactions. Follow up with a discussion about density. (This video below from my friend James shows how it works).
The BBC has put out some amazing videos on flying penguins and farming spaghetti.
You might also wnat to check out the anti-gravity trampoline and marshmallow farming.
This is a fun prank that your curious students won’t be able to resist!
Tell your students that there is a new drug going around that they need to be aware of called Dihydrogen Monoxide. (Dihydrogen Monoxide is the chemical name for water). Show them this video clip and then ask the students what chemicals you think people might make this drug out of.
Do you have students who try and eat in class even when you tell them to put the hot cheetos away? Do you have any small skulls left over from your last owl pellet dissection? Tell the students that you were cleaning the room yesterday and you found the skull in one of the cabinets. Explain to them that the only reason rats come to the classroom is because they are finding food. You can have a discussion about food chains (and if you truly want them to stop eating snacks, don’t tell them the truth!)
Tell the students that you had $5 stolen out of your wallet the day before. Tell them you know $5 isn’t a lot, but you are really disappointed in them. To prove your point that it isn’t about the money, take out a $5 bill and light it on fire yelling “see, it’s not about the money!” (To light the money on fire without damaging the bill, dip the money in a water and rubbing alcohol mixture behind your desk where the students can’t see).
Have a piece of pyrite laying around? (If not, check with your earth science teacher). Tell the students that you were hiking after school the previous day and came across a large piece of gold. Pull out the pyrite, tell them it is worth thousands, and today will be your last day because you are retiring. April Fool’s Gold!
Have your students help save the endangered tree octopus (and then discuss what is a reliable internet source).
9. Set up a Fake Text
Head over to a website such as http://iphonefaketext.com/ and create your own fake text message conversation. The possibilities here are endless! You can pretend to have seen a conversation between two students or between teacher and student (see pictured). Kids are addicted to their phones, so might as well stoop to their level!
Give students this word search (that doesn’t have any of the words in the search!) You can even tell them there is a prize for the student that completes it the fastest.
I hope you have a great day fooling your students!
