Themes: Jokes, jokes, jokes! Gemma looks ahead to April Fools' Day
Before the programme:
- Have you ever played an April Fools’ Day prank on anyone or been the subject of one?
- Do you know of any famous examples of April Fools’ Day jokes from the media?
- How can you ensure that April Fool jokes and pranks are fun and not hurtful?
- Do you know of any April Fools’ Day jokes that have gone too far and upset people or even hurt them?
Programme content:
Voxpops: Children talk about the April Fools’ Day jokes they have played on others… and the ones others have played on them!
**Song: ‘**Laughing in the playground’ - All abut our school - no. 6.
Story: April Fools by Tracey Hammett Reflection: on the importance of laughter, but making sure that we laugh with someone and not at them. Boris the Maremmano sheepdog lives in central Italy. One day his flock of sheep decide to play an April Fools’ Day trick on him… and he decides to play one back. Unfortunately, the trick backfires and Boris has to learn his lesson!
After the programme:
Talk about the story
- What kind of animal is Boris and where does he live?
- Which animal were the sheep afraid of?
- Which April Fool trick did Boris want to play on his fellow sheep?
Follow-up activities
- Often newspapers, TV and radio programmes have a joke article on April Fools’ Day. Try to find some recent examples. How can you tell if an article is serious or an April Fools’ Day joke? How do the jokes seek to ‘take in’ people?
- Create some April Fools’ Day jokes of your own to go in a newspaper - perhaps an advertisement for an extraordinary new invention…or an outlandish new feature of an existing one.
- Design the cover for a book version of our April Fools story. What picture will you put on the front and what kind of lettering and other design features will it have? Write the ‘blurb’ that goes on the back - a couple of short paragraphs telling people about the book.
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