Who doesn’t enjoy a little FOOLISHNESS around APRIL 1st?
April Foolishness by Teresa Bateman is one of my favorite stories to share on this playful day. The surprise in the story always brings SMILES and LAUGHTER to the classroom.
Share the book cover with students and begin a discussion.
Ask:
• What is the title of the story?
• What do you think the story will be about?
• What characters might be in the story?
• Where do you think the story takes place?
Through this conversation, students begin identifying characters, setting, and making a story prediction before reading.
After reading the story with your class, these engaging LITERACY ACTIVITIES make it a perfect choice for GUIDED READING. This resource is packed with meaningful READING, WRITING, and WORD WORK activities designed to strengthen important literacy skills. Students will also enjoy participating in a CLASS POLL and completing DIFFERENTIATED DATA COLLECTION pages that encourage discussion and student participation.
These simple yet purposeful activities help reinforce COMPREHENSION, encourage thoughtful DISCUSSION, and add a little extra APRIL FOOLISHNESS FUN to your literacy time.
Above you will find a cute opener titled April Foolishness. It is ideal for pre-assessing what students know about playing a trick on someone.
A class poll is also included: Do you like April Fools’ Day? As a class, students can record and discuss the results.
In addition, there are two differentiated data collection sheets so students can survey classmates on their own and record their findings.
There are many choices for comprehension activities. In the first activity, the events are read aloud one at a time, and students write the numbers in the boxes before cutting and pasting the events in the correct order. This format is especially helpful for supporting lower-level readers.
Two additional comprehension pages include pictures that support the simple text. These activities focus on sequencing and identifying story elements.
For the artists in your class, there is also an activity where students draw an event from the story.
You will also find a poem that retells the story. It is presented in a mini-book format, allowing students to highlight key words to support their reading.
Word work activities include ABC order, syllables, a word search, and a making words activity. In the making words activity, letters at the bottom of the page are cut out and used to build different words. I like to place students in small groups for this activity because they enjoy working together to create words.
The vocabulary cards are bright, colorful, and perfect for posting in the classroom. They can also be placed in a literacy center where students can arrange them in ABC order or sort them by the number of syllables. I also like to use the cards with students to retell events from the story.
I love using these paragraph organizers to help students plan and organize their ideas before writing. They provide excellent support as students prepare to write a paragraph.
After planning, students can complete their writing on three differentiated writing pages designed to meet a variety of ability levels. I have found that using this process has greatly improved my students’ writing.
A class cover page is also included so you can compile the finished work into a class book, allowing students to read and enjoy each other’s stories.
These bright and colorful interactive Google Slides are designed to be easy for students to use, featuring simple click-and-drag activities along with basic typing tasks. Students will enjoy reading the silly rhyming story, followed by comprehension activities that focus on sequencing and story elements.
The word work activities include making words using the letters in “foolishness” and practicing ABC order with vocabulary from the story.
The presentation concludes with a fun class discussion question:
Would you rather play a trick on someone or have a trick played on you?
This engaging resource brings laughter, reading, and interactive learning together—perfect for celebrating April Fool’s Day in your classroom!
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