This Is No April Fool

One year in a first grade class, I told them the day before April Fool's Day that I would let them tell one joke to the class. I left it as optional so the shy kiddos would not stress out and the kiddos who love the spotlight could shine. My favorite was this sweet, quiet little boy who always reminded me of the boy the in Jerry Maguire (you remember, the human-head-weighs-8-pounds kid). I would never even have guessed that he would be brave enough to get in front of the class, but that he did. He stood proudly on the carpet and told his joke. Him: "Knock knock." Class: "Who's there?" Him: "Nobody." Class: "Nobody who?" He just stood quietly in front of the class with a big ole grin. Get it? Nobody was there! Bahahahaha! It just cracked me up!

I also had a packet of activities for the students to do when they finished their reading work. At the time, it was hard to find some things so I had to scramble and piece together a word search, maze, and crossword puzzle. But I thought, there had to be some other things to do. So I created some and put them altogether in a free April Fool's Day Activity Packet.

There are seven different activities including a silly story planning sheet, draw and describe a creature with silly eyes, how did the chicken cross the road, KWL chart with a short history of April Fool's Day reading passage (littler ones will need the passage read to them), and an acrostic poem. And it's all free!

This year, April Fool's Day falls on a Sunday, so maybe not as many teachers will be celebrating. But if I get the chance, I will celebrate on Monday, April 2.