3 Fun Poisson d’Avril Activities for your French classes
Bring smiles into your French classroom with a funny April Fool’s video, or prank your students for major street cred!
Poisson d’Avril! April Fools’ day is one of my favorite school days. My students are fascinated to learn how French speakers observe this day. Of course, I stick paper fish all over my students’ backs (and I usually end up with a fair collection on my own back by the end of the day - if any colleague asks, I just explain, “This is French culture!”) Poisson d’Avril also provides a wealth of funny listening and cultural activities to share with your classes. Here are three of my favorites!
1. Gâteau Poisson d’Avril: (novice students)
Watch this clever mom prank her children… They don’t take the joke well!
After watching this video, help students pull out the key words: gâteau, c’est quoi, un carton, poisson d’avril!
2. Remi Gaillard pranks the volleyball world (intermediate students)
Remi Gaillard is famous for his irreverent practical jokes. Introducing your kids to this hilarious French YouTuber may motivate them to spend time outside of class watching media in French. This practice (known as ‘extramural language learning’) is strongly correlated with future language proficiency, and you can read more about it in my blog post here! Note: be sure to preview any Remi Gaillard video. They are all hilarious, but not all school appropriate!
I love this video in which Remi ‘crashes’ the French volleyball team, joining for the pre-game warm-up before being escorted off the court by security. Kids can listen to the French national anthem, as well as listen to the commentators’ speech, including great phrases such as "La personne qui chante 'La Marseillaise" n'est pas un membre de l'équipe française!.... On ne connait pas son nom, il n'a pas de numéro...C'est un petit piège... Il avait quand même le maillot, il avait le short..."
Remi is well-known in France; he has over 7 million YouTube suscribers, and this video has been viewed over 10 million times! Your kids will be proud of their ability to understand the commentators’ French as they join in on this amusing and well-known bit of cultural literacy.
3. Prank your students with a fake word search assignment (any level)
Click the picture for a fake French word search
Click the picture for a fake Spanish word search
In general, I dislike word searches as they provide little meaningful practice. I make an exception once a year for the Poisson d’Avril word search!
Shh! This is a great joke to play on your students for April Fools Day! Assign the word search during class. It will take your kids awhile to figure out the secret: none of the listed words exist in the document! The only words they will find are “Poisson d’Avril / April Fool’s”! Click the links to French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese versions in my TPT store.
April Fool’s Day is such a fun opportunity to pull in both language and culture, and my students frequently cite these activities among their favorites from the school year! Bring some smiles into your classroom that will have your students shouting… “POISSON D’AVRIL!”
Do you like to prank your students, or otherwise observe this silly holiday? Share your favorite April Fool’s classroom traditions in the chat!
