April Fools’ Day is a great time to insert some silly, harmless fun into the school day. It’s also a great opportunity to build classroom community, spark laughter, and encourage critical thinking in a low-pressure way. Add this April Fools’ Day unsolvable word search worksheet into morning work or assign it for extra work or as a “can do” when students are finished with their work. Have students work in groups to see if they can solve it, and the first group to call “April Fools’!” wins a prize. (Bonus points if they figure it out through teamwork and observation!) However you use this word search, students won’t forget it!
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April Fools’ Day Unsolvable Word Search
See who calls “April Fools’!” first when students discover the words listed on the worksheet aren’t actually in the word search.
How To Use the April Fools’ Day Worksheet
Adrienne Hathaway for We Are Teachers
April 1st is a day to keep students on their toes with harmless pranks, and the April Fools’ worksheet is a perfect school prank. It looks like a standard classroom activity, but students will find the words listed are actually not to be found in the word search. The first to call out “April Fools’!” wins. No one gets hurt, it’s academic, and students can talk about how they figured it out. This opens the door for great conversation about perseverance, patterns, and knowing when it’s OK to rethink your approach. You can assign this unsolvable word search as extra work during the day. Students who get the joke are sure to want to take the word search home to try it out on their families, so be sure to print some extra copies!
Get your free April Fools’ Day unsolvable word search!
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Plus, check out our list of harmless April Fools’ pranks for kids of all ages!
Samantha Cleaver, PhD, Special Ed & Reading Intervention
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fool’s Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. One year, Google posted a job opening for a Copernicus research center on the moon. Another year, the company said it planned to roll out a “scratch and sniff” feature on its search engine.Related video above: Elon Musk says he’s creating Gmail rival XMailThe jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why Page and Brin decided to unveil something no one would believe was possible 20 years ago on April Fool’s Day.It was Gmail, a free service boasting 1 gigabyte of storage per account, an amount that sounds almost pedestrian in an age of one-terabyte iPhones. But it sounded like a preposterous amount of email capacity back then, enough to store about 13,500 emails before running out of space compared to just 30 to 60 emails in the then-leading webmail services run by Yahoo and Microsoft. That translated into 250 to 500 times more email storage space. Besides the quantum leap in storage, Gmail also came equipped with Google’s search technology so users could quickly retrieve a tidbit from an old email, photo or other personal information stored on the service. It also automatically threaded together a string of communications about the same topic so everything flowed together as if it was a single conversation.”The original pitch we put together was all about the three ‘S’s” — storage, search and speed,” said former Google executive Marissa Mayer, who helped design Gmail and other company products before later becoming Yahoo’s CEO.It was such a mind-bending concept that shortly after The Associated Press published a story about Gmail late on the afternoon of April Fool’s 2004, readers began calling and emailing to inform the news agency Google’s pranksters had duped it.”That was part of the charm, making a product that people won’t believe is real. It kind of changed people’s perceptions about the kinds of applications that were possible within a web browser,” former Google engineer Paul Buchheit recalled during a recent AP interview about his efforts to build Gmail. It took three years to do as part of a project called “Caribou” — a reference to a running gag in the Dilbert comic strip. “There was something sort of absurd about the name Caribou, it just made me laugh,” said Buchheit, the 23rd employee hired at a company that now employs more than 180,000 people.The AP knew Google wasn’t joking about Gmail because an AP reporter had been abruptly asked to come down from San Francisco to the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters to see something that would make the trip worthwhile.After arriving at a still-developing corporate campus that would soon blossom into what became known as the “Googleplex,” the AP reporter was ushered into a small office where Page was wearing a mischievous grin while sitting in front of his laptop computer.Page, then just 31 years old, showed off Gmail’s sleekly designed inbox and demonstrated how quickly it operated within Microsoft’s now-retired Explorer web browser. And he pointed out there was no delete button featured in the main control window because it wouldn’t be necessary, given Gmail had so much storage and could be so easily searched. “I think people are really going to like this,” Page predicted.As with so many other things, Page was right. Gmail now has an estimated 1.8 billion active accounts — each one now offering 15 gigabytes of free storage bundled with Google Photos and Google Drive. Even though that’s 15 times more storage than Gmail initially offered, it’s still not enough for many users who rarely see the need to purge their accounts, just as Google hoped. The digital hoarding of email, photos and other content is why Google, Apple and other companies now make money from selling additional storage capacity in their data centers. (In Google’s case, it charges anywhere from $30 annually for 200 gigabytes of storage to $250 annually for 5 terabytes of storage). Gmail’s existence is also why other free email services and the internal email accounts that employees use on their jobs offer far more storage than was fathomed 20 years ago.”We were trying to shift the way people had been thinking because people were working in this model of storage scarcity for so long that deleting became a default action,” Buchheit said.Gmail was a game changer in several other ways while becoming the first building block in the expansion of Google’s internet empire beyond its still-dominant search engine. After Gmail came Google Maps and Google Docs with word processing and spreadsheet applications. Then came the acquisition of the video site YouTube, followed by the introduction of the Chrome browser and the Android operating system that powers most of the world’s smartphones. With Gmail’s explicitly stated intention to scan the content of emails to get a better understanding of users’ interests, Google also left little doubt that digital surveillance in pursuit of selling more ads would be part of its expanding ambitions.Although it immediately generated a buzz, Gmail started with a limited scope because Google initially only had enough computing capacity to support a small audience of users. “When we launched, we only had 300 machines and they were really old machines that no one else wanted,” Buchheit said, with a chuckle. “We only had enough capacity for 10,000 users, which is a little absurd.”But that scarcity created an air of exclusivity around Gmail that drove feverish demand for elusive invitations to sign up. At one point, invitations to open a Gmail account were selling for $250 apiece on eBay. “It became a bit like a social currency, where people would go, ‘Hey, I got a Gmail invite, you want one?’” Buchheit said.Although signing up for Gmail became increasingly easier as more of Google’s network of massive data centers came online, the company didn’t begin accepting all comers to the email service until it opened the floodgates as a Valentine’s Day present to the world in 2007.A few weeks later on April Fool’s Day in 2007, Google announced a new feature called “Gmail Paper” offering users the chance to have Google print out their email archive on “94% post-consumer organic soybean sputum ” and then have it sent to them through the Postal Service. Google really was joking around that time.
SAN FRANCISCO —
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fool’s Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. One year, Google posted a job opening for a Copernicus research center on the moon. Another year, the company said it planned to roll out a “scratch and sniff” feature on its search engine.
Related video above: Elon Musk says he’s creating Gmail rival XMail
The jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why Page and Brin decided to unveil something no one would believe was possible 20 years ago on April Fool’s Day.
It was Gmail, a free service boasting 1 gigabyte of storage per account, an amount that sounds almost pedestrian in an age of one-terabyte iPhones. But it sounded like a preposterous amount of email capacity back then, enough to store about 13,500 emails before running out of space compared to just 30 to 60 emails in the then-leading webmail services run by Yahoo and Microsoft. That translated into 250 to 500 times more email storage space.
Besides the quantum leap in storage, Gmail also came equipped with Google’s search technology so users could quickly retrieve a tidbit from an old email, photo or other personal information stored on the service. It also automatically threaded together a string of communications about the same topic so everything flowed together as if it was a single conversation.
“The original pitch we put together was all about the three ‘S’s” — storage, search and speed,” said former Google executive Marissa Mayer, who helped design Gmail and other company products before later becoming Yahoo’s CEO.
It was such a mind-bending concept that shortly after The Associated Press published a story about Gmail late on the afternoon of April Fool’s 2004, readers began calling and emailing to inform the news agency Google’s pranksters had duped it.
“That was part of the charm, making a product that people won’t believe is real. It kind of changed people’s perceptions about the kinds of applications that were possible within a web browser,” former Google engineer Paul Buchheit recalled during a recent AP interview about his efforts to build Gmail.
It took three years to do as part of a project called “Caribou” — a reference to a running gag in the Dilbert comic strip. “There was something sort of absurd about the name Caribou, it just made me laugh,” said Buchheit, the 23rd employee hired at a company that now employs more than 180,000 people.
The AP knew Google wasn’t joking about Gmail because an AP reporter had been abruptly asked to come down from San Francisco to the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters to see something that would make the trip worthwhile.
After arriving at a still-developing corporate campus that would soon blossom into what became known as the “Googleplex,” the AP reporter was ushered into a small office where Page was wearing a mischievous grin while sitting in front of his laptop computer.
Page, then just 31 years old, showed off Gmail’s sleekly designed inbox and demonstrated how quickly it operated within Microsoft’s now-retired Explorer web browser. And he pointed out there was no delete button featured in the main control window because it wouldn’t be necessary, given Gmail had so much storage and could be so easily searched. “I think people are really going to like this,” Page predicted.
As with so many other things, Page was right. Gmail now has an estimated 1.8 billion active accounts — each one now offering 15 gigabytes of free storage bundled with Google Photos and Google Drive. Even though that’s 15 times more storage than Gmail initially offered, it’s still not enough for many users who rarely see the need to purge their accounts, just as Google hoped.
The digital hoarding of email, photos and other content is why Google, Apple and other companies now make money from selling additional storage capacity in their data centers. (In Google’s case, it charges anywhere from $30 annually for 200 gigabytes of storage to $250 annually for 5 terabytes of storage). Gmail’s existence is also why other free email services and the internal email accounts that employees use on their jobs offer far more storage than was fathomed 20 years ago.
“We were trying to shift the way people had been thinking because people were working in this model of storage scarcity for so long that deleting became a default action,” Buchheit said.
Gmail was a game changer in several other ways while becoming the first building block in the expansion of Google’s internet empire beyond its still-dominant search engine.
After Gmail came Google Maps and Google Docs with word processing and spreadsheet applications. Then came the acquisition of the video site YouTube, followed by the introduction of the Chrome browser and the Android operating system that powers most of the world’s smartphones. With Gmail’s explicitly stated intention to scan the content of emails to get a better understanding of users’ interests, Google also left little doubt that digital surveillance in pursuit of selling more ads would be part of its expanding ambitions.
Although it immediately generated a buzz, Gmail started with a limited scope because Google initially only had enough computing capacity to support a small audience of users.
“When we launched, we only had 300 machines and they were really old machines that no one else wanted,” Buchheit said, with a chuckle. “We only had enough capacity for 10,000 users, which is a little absurd.”
But that scarcity created an air of exclusivity around Gmail that drove feverish demand for elusive invitations to sign up. At one point, invitations to open a Gmail account were selling for $250 apiece on eBay. “It became a bit like a social currency, where people would go, ‘Hey, I got a Gmail invite, you want one?’” Buchheit said.
Although signing up for Gmail became increasingly easier as more of Google’s network of massive data centers came online, the company didn’t begin accepting all comers to the email service until it opened the floodgates as a Valentine’s Day present to the world in 2007.
A few weeks later on April Fool’s Day in 2007, Google announced a new feature called “Gmail Paper” offering users the chance to have Google print out their email archive on “94% post-consumer organic soybean sputum ” and then have it sent to them through the Postal Service. Google really was joking around that time.
April Fool’s Day has finally come to add a little bit more chaos to the week, as jokes and lies fly around unrestricted. But we understand what April 1 is all about—a chance for developers to sneak in some humor in our favorite games. These April Fools’ jokes are getting a little more advanced and ambitious year by year, and we love April for that. Here are some of the best April Fools’ jokes currently out there:
Lechonk lovers unite
Here are two true statements: Lechonk is a perfect Pokémon, and Lechonk deserves more love than we can offer. So while there’s an underlying pain that Lechonk can only dominate Pokémon on a holiday meant for jokes, I’m still happy to report that Lechonk will get the stardom it deserves this April 1. True Lechonk fans will treat themselves to an extra chonky plush, or a porky pink playmat decked out with numerous Lechonks.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Coolest Zone Is Easy To Miss
Nintendo Switch Online will now sound more Italian
Incredible visuals This smart TV has access to a wide array of streaming services, all of which are easier to navigate, has 4K visuals for a stunning picture, and comes with an Alexa Voice Remote too.
IGN pulls a fast one here and declares that every Mario game is about to get Prattified. Can you imagine?
Xzibit levels up Pimp My Ride
Xzibit shows YOU how to PIMP YOUR motherf****** BROWSER
Opera GX is a self-proclaimed “browser for gamers,” and I suppose allowing users to mod their browser takes that sentiment to the next level. The one and only Xzibit is here to show you how to pimp out your Opera GX setup, with new aesthetic digs like a Cyberpunk theme or a more broad “anime theme.”
Disgaea throws its hat into the dating simulator ring…with a fake dating sim
It’s pretty trendy nowadays for games to also have a spin-off dating sim, like Dead by Daylight or Overwatch 2. For Disgaea, I suppose April 1 is as good a time as any to announce its otome date-sim spin-off, titled Makai no Prince-Sama. Tragically, this game has a release date slated for January 30, 20000000200, so there’s no way for me to actually take Killia out for a nice dinner. Oh well. If this game were to be true, you would wake up in the form of a Prinny (those cute penguins) to experience a heart-pounding and romantic adventure. One can only dream.
【魔界戦記ディスガイア】『魔界の♡プリンスさまっ♪』プロモーションムービー
Genshin Impact reveals four playable cats
Genshin Impact has a real love for cats, as evidenced by the playable character Diona and her “Cat’s Tail” bar. For April Fools, Hoyoverse is capitalizing on all of our feline fantasies: to play a cat. More specifically, Hoyoverse released a set of shorts and promotional images to advertise playable kitty versions of Diluc, Keqing, Kuki Shinobu, and Wanderer. Unfortunately, they will be hard to distinguish through text, as each cat is simply named “Meow,” and all they can do or say is “meow.”
Among Us expands its horse universe
Innersloth can’t stop horsing around, it seems, as the Among Us developers once again brought back the infamous “Horse Mode,” allowing players to take control of the majestic Horsemate. But Innersloth simply could not satisfy itself by rerunning the same classic “Horse Mode.” The Among Us devs have stepped their game up with the expanded “Horse Wrangling Mode.” This Hide n’ Seek game mode will allow the seeker to take the role of a “Rancher,” literally tying up these darned Horsemates instead of killing them.
Among Us Horse Mode Kill Animation
Look your best with the new Razer Razer
I’m glad Razer is finally cashing in on its homophonic relationship with the word “razor.” One might say it’s an easy target, but I believe it’s just necessary wordplay. This theoretical razor doubles as a shaving tool, as well as a high-quality gaming mouse, allowing you to look your best as you click heads or whatever it is you use your gaming mouse for.
You can sign up to be a beta tester for the Razer Razer on the official website here. Now, I’m not a betting man, but I don’t think you’ll actually get your hands on a Razer Razer. But you will enter a raffle to win a full set of Razer gear, including a keyboard, headphones, and mouse.
Razer Razer | Feel Sharp, Play Sharp
Assassinate a cuddly teddy bear in Rainbow Six Siege
Rainbow Six Siege likes to celebrate April Fools with a “Rainbow is Magic” event. While normally, Rainbow Six Siege does not display much in the form of rainbows, April Fools allows the tactical shooter to add some color to its universe. Unfortunately, pacifists are not welcome this time. As opposed to rescuing teddy bears, you’ll have to blow their heads off instead.
Rainbow Six Siege: Rainbow is Magic 2023 Gameplay Trailer
1v1 your cat in Street Fighter 6
Capcom is on a roll with innovative new Street Fighter 6 features. Not only will there be a new 2v2 mode, but also a “Dynamic-mode” that allows you to perform stylish combos and attacks with the simple press of a button. For further accessibility with your cat, Capcom has created a tool that lets your cat experience Dynamic mode, converting the various swats and jabs of a cat into button presses. If you ever dreamt of that, anyways.
League of Legends allows you to collect and wear a bounty of hats
League of Legends is now all about that fashion. When players enter a Blind Pick match, they’ll have the chance to wander around the Summoner’s Rift to kill minions, collecting some snazzy hats along the way. And if this Reddit post is to be believed, it doesn’t seem like there’s an upper limit to how many stylish hats you can wear, which means your stack of hats can be as tall as you dream. Some other surprises are waiting for you in Blind Pick, but I’ll be out there collecting hats instead.
While Sonic the Hedgehog is murdered, the Eggcoin currency crashes
It appears to be a stressful time of year for Sonic the Hedgehog and friends. While everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog was killed off for a free murder mystery game, there were some darker, more illicit underpinnings brewing in the Sonicverse. Apparently, Eggman has created a cryptocurrency known as “Eggcoin” that has crashed and burned, and Big the Cat is the surprising leader of a mafia crew, amongst other shocking headlines. Thoughts and prayers.
Baldur’s Gate 3 will let you cheese everything
One of the best things about Larian games is finding out how you can use the tools they give you to break their games. They’ve decided to cut out the middleman and just let you cheese outright!
VALORANT e-daters in Ranked will automatically be funneled to a dedicated queue where they can only hear one another’s voice comms
Cuffing season may be over, but if you and your situationship are tryna link over VALORANT without getting absolutely merked by your teammates, we gotchu fam.
GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES
Shots fired while in spawn will now shoot into enemy spawn
map control is mid anyway
Jett dash is now cooldown based instead of charge based and the cooldown is now set to 0.5 seconds
we love Jett and we love cars so we made her dash cooldown 0.5 seconds. Jett boutta pull up skrt skrt
Minecraft’s April Fools Is On Fire
Revealing: The Vote Update
If you log into Minecraft today, you’re going to notice something a little different about your launcher. Don’t worry, nothing is wrong. You can put out the fire with the little water bucket. Aside from that, though, Mojang has unleashed a devilish ‘Vote’ update, which sounds like pure chaos:
From the moment you start a game, you will find yourself in a world of endless voting, where the results fundamentally change the laws of Minecraft. As you might have noticed in the video, we have created a fine selection of voteable features that include everything and anything: beelloons*, French mode, zombie mode, rabbit transformation, exploding pistons, haunted world – and much, much more.
“Studies show that gamers love to make decisions – the more the better,” said Professor Apreel Dåre of Sillington University. “The fact that Mojang Studios is willing to put decision-making in the hands of the players just shows how much they care about their community. Or that’s what I assume. I haven’t been in a community since 1857 and I don’t really play games.”
If you have no idea what to expect, that’s by design. They’re liking this to getting a box of chocolates, just one with apparent consequences.
After you download it, there is no turning back. If you delete the file, the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You boot it up, you stay in the Overworld, and we show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
I’m sure it’ll be fine, though.
Rocket League gets positive
If you’re logging on to have a heater gamer moment in Rocket League today, bad news. The chat has been overhauled so only positive messages can go out. Also, now there’s a literal Easter Egg you can kick around.
What are some of your favorite April fool’s jokes this year?
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
April Fools’ Day has been a favorite holiday with pranksters for centuries. Over the past decade or so, some of the world’s biggest brands have embraced the April Fools’ spirit in a bid to connect with their markets.
April Fools’ Day also offers excellent opportunities for small businesses to launch fun, lighthearted campaigns that connect with their audiences. Sharing a joke is a powerful tool to create exposure and build rapport quicker than straight-faced marketing campaigns.
From scratch-and-sniff iPads to the 111th birthday of YouTube, April Fools’ Day has captured the imagination of marketing teams worldwide. In the United States, some of the biggest brands have recently played jokes on their audiences, including Tesla, Google and Burger King.
1. Google Tulip
In 2019, Google launched a machine learning-based product allowing users to communicate with plants. Complete with its own website and landing page, the campaign was widely shared on social media and generated a lot of positive feedback from the public.
2. Teslaquila
Admire him or not, Tesla founder Elon Musk knows how to generate headlines. In 2018, he used April Fools’ Day to tweet a photo of himself holding a bottle of “Teslaquila,” a fake tequila brand. The tweet went viral and generated a lot of media coverage, which helped to increase Tesla’s brand awareness.
The story does not end here. Since then, Musk tried to patent the name and launch a real tequila product. The result is Tesla Tequila. As it turns out, the name Teslaquila falls foul of industry regulations.
3. Burger King’s Chocolate Whopper
In 2018, Burger King announced the launch of the “Chocolate Whopper.” The burger featured a chocolate patty, raspberry syrup, white chocolate rings, candied oranges and vanilla frosting on a bun. Initially only a joke, the campaign generated a lot of buzz on social media and increased Burger King’s brand awareness.
In 2021, the company took its idea beyond a joke, launching a Chocolate Whopper in some of its Asian markets. Because the product was launched on April 1, customers took it as a joke at first. But the limited-edition burger made it on the menu.
How small businesses can replicate April Fools’ success
April Fools’ Day marketing campaigns have great potential to benefit brands. The key to launching a successful April Fools’ marketing bid is to align it with your audience, brand personality, and overall brand messaging.
Surveys show that April Fools’ jokes are particularly popular among younger consumers. They also tend to be received better by men than women. In addition, April Fools’ campaigns should not deceive or seriously mislead customers.
So, how can smaller businesses tread this fine line to increase awareness without alienating customers? Here are three ideas any business can try:
1. Create a “fake” or limited-edition product
Think of a product that is just close enough to your company’s actual products to make it realistic, yet outlandish enough to get your audiences talking.
For example, in 2019, T-Mobile launched a “Smartshoephone.” The product pretended to be a shoe that consumers could use as a smartphone. This campaign generated buzz on social media, resulting in shares and comments. Another option is advertising a product that is available for one day only.
2. Put humor at the heart of your campaign
April Fools’ Day is all about humor and pranks. Small businesses can use that to their advantage by creating a funny video or meme showing their brand in a lighthearted way. This is a great way to stand out and create memories.
Netflix achieved that in 2016 by releasing a “docuseries” called John Stamos: A Human, Being. The series simply showed the actor eating various foods. It generated significant buzz on social media.
3. Launch a contest
Ask your audience to share their best prank stories or create a funny video related to your brand. With the right prize, this kind of contest can truly drive engagement. Snapchat led the way in 2018 by hosting an April Fools’ Day “Prank Challenge,” which invited users to share their best prank videos. The winner received a $50,000 prize, and the campaign generated significant engagement.
Like any other marketing campaign, an April Fools’ Day campaign needs to be well-planned and well-considered to achieve the desired results. While this can be a time to try out new marketing tactics, brands can also choose to rely on the tactics and channels they already prefer. Here is a look at some of the most effective tactics for brands in 2023.
Social media marketing:Social media marketing channels are ideal for reaching a wider audience on April Fools’ Day. A fun and engaging post featuring images and videos can quickly go viral. Use hashtags and shareable content to increase the reach of your post.
Email marketing: A humorous email that uniquely highlights your brand is another great way to engage audiences. Personalize your email and match it to your audience’s interests to increase the open and click-through rates.
Influencer marketing: Identify influencers in your niche who have a large following and a sense of humor and approach them for collaboration. You benefit by increasing your brand’s visibility and credibility.
Guerilla marketing: If your brand personality is creative and unconventional, guerilla marketing tactics like a flash mob, a street performance or a creative installation will get people talking.
Product placement: Partner with a popular TV show, movie or video game and create a humorous product placement, even if it is just for a day. You will increase your brand’s visibility and credibility among your target audience.
Be inspired by real life
In some cases, life writes the best stories, and you do not need to travel far to find inspiration for your company’s April Fools’ Day marketing. The flexible workspace platform Vallist is one such example. The company opened its doors on April 1, 2020, just as the pandemic took hold. While the team may have launched during a time of extreme uncertainty, they could not have picked a better time for their product.
In fact, their vision turned out to be somewhat prescient. The irony of launching when other businesses were forced to shut down was not lost on Vallist’s founders either. Thanks to sustained growth over the past three years, the company is now expanding and opening another flexible workspace platform in New York City’s Bryant Park on April 1, 2023. No joke, but the pun is fully intended.
April Fools’ Day gives brands a unique opportunity to reach audiences lightheartedly and memorably. Choose these creative marketing tactics to engage with your customers and increase brand visibility and credibility. Remember to keep your messaging aligned with your brand’s values and personality, and have fun with it!
