April Fools’ Day is a fun holiday to share with your family. While many April Fools’ Day pranks are mean or messy, we’ve gathered nine kid-friendly tricks that will make your kids giggle. Start off the day with frozen cereal and fake OJ, put googly eyes on items in lunch boxes and put bubble wrap under the rug for a popping good time. Read on for more April Fools’ Day fun.
1. Funny face eggs
Draw faces on eggs with a Sharpie. Put the eggs back in the carton with the faces clearly visible. Innocently ask one of your kids to hand you an egg or two for a recipe. It’s the prank that happens over and over because you probably won’t use all of the eggs at once. Get more details on Buzzfeed.
2. Somebody’s watching
If your family members like to grab an apple or banana as they pass by the fruit bowl, this prank from Oh Happy Day is for you. Stick googly eyes on apples and bananas so that when they look at the fruit — it will be looking back at them!
3. Bubble wrap mat
Borrow this idea from Make It & Love It by placing a sheet of bubble wrap under the doormat and get a laugh as kids are surprised by the popping when they step out of the door. For extra fun, put several sheets of bubble wrap under an area rug and have a dance-off.
4. Don’t touch the remote!
Simply place a small piece of black electrical tape over the LED light on the front of the remote control. When your "victim" tries to use the remote control, they will be confused by why it doesn't work, even after they change the batteries.
5. Jell-O juice
For another fun juice trick, make some Jell-O in the same color as your children’s favorite juice or sports drink. Pour the liquid Jell-O into clear cups, add a straw and refrigerate overnight. Serve the “juice” as a treat. Read the full instructions over on Story Piece.
6. Blue bath time
According to the Kids Activities blog, you can use a cotton swab to spread some blue gel food coloring on the underside of a faucet. Kids will love blue bathwater! You could give other faucets in the house, such as the bathroom and kitchen sink, the same treatment but with different colors.
7. Solid cereal
Start April Fools’ Day off with this fun breakfast prank from She Saved. The night before, freeze bowls of cereal in milk. Kids will be confused when they dip in a spoon, only to encounter a solid block of ice instead of their usual cereal.
8. Extra special Easter eggs
For snack time on April 1, Ashley at Frugal Coupon Living suggests treating the kids to some mini chocolate eggs. But this isn’t really the chocolate treat they were hoping for as these delicious treats are actually grapes disguised as candy.
9. Delicious fruit
Many pranks involve substituting veggies for candy or other sweet treats. Kids will love this prank that switches out fruit cocktail for candy. Check out this Come Together Kids blog post for the full details of this prank.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in March 2020, and updated in April 2023.
