20 Best April Fools Pranks For Kids At Home

Top 20 Best April Fools Pranks For Kids At Home

There are few things more satisfying than pulling a fast one on your own kid, but elaborate prep work is sure to sap the fun out of any good April Fools' Day joke. We've found that the very best pranks are also the simplest.

Because we all get a free pass on playing pranks! From jokes you can play on your spouse in cahoots with your kids to sweet ways to surprise your tots, these 20 April Fools’ jokes for kids will fill your house with laughter. Couldn’t we all use that?

List of 20 best April's fool pranks for you kids 2022:

Make a move while they sleep

This April Fools’ prank is perfect for kids who are heavy sleepers. Sneak in during the night and shuffle their furniture around, change out their comforter—or even swap your kids from one bed to another. They’ll wake up wondering what exactly happened while they were snoozing!

Jello Surprise

Whip up a batch of Jell-O, toss in a straw, and let it set in clear drinking glasses until it resembles their favorite flavor of juice or fruit punch. Serve up these glasses of “juice” to your kiddos — who will get absolutely nowhere when they try to slurp it up through the straw.

Bathroom sink surprise

Thankfully the mischief here is sillier than mean (i.e., a different kind of waterworks). This prank is also particularly easy to execute: Just discreetly place a small square of tape—scotch tape will do the trick, but duct tape is even better—to the underside of the faucet for an unexpected sprinkler effect.

Shoe crisis (aka retribution treasure hunt)

Is it just us, or is it incredibly hard to get kids to put their godforsaken shoes on? (Sorry.) Good news: April Fool’s is a holiday that allows parents to find genuine delight in that oh-so familiar struggle. Hide one shoe of every pair in a secret location and stand back as your kids work hard to get out the door (for a change).

Googly Eyes

This gag couldn’t be easier for a PG-rated gag: Get out that bag of googly eyes from the craft drawer, and open the fridge. Place a set of eyes on everything you see: the carton of milk, the veggies, all the condiments. They’ll crack up when they go in for breakfast, only to see all those little eyes staring back at them.

Turn their milk blue

Have some Star Wars fans in your family? Tell them that you got them some extra-special milk direct from Tatooine! This is easy April Fools’ prank for kids is perfect for those who drink milk or eat cereal every morning. Simply put a few drops of blue food coloring into your milk carton, shake it up, then pour. (You get bonus points if you make some Star Wars-themed labeling to glue onto your milk carton.)

Cold breakfast

April Fool’s pranks are a dish that’s best served ice cold...literally. Prepare your kid’s breakfast cereal 12 hours in advance so you can stick it in the freezer (spoon and all) and surprise him with a lovely looking, but totally inedible block of ice in the morning. Pro tip: Have scrambled eggs on standby in case your child wakes up hangry and the joke is on you.

Toothpaste fake-out

What’s the first thing your kids do when they get up in the morning? Brush their teeth! So for a harmless (even tasty) prank, hand them a toothbrush topped with… something that looks like toothpaste. Instead, they’ll find their mouth filled with icing, cream cheese, or whatever passable substitute you have on hand.

Let the Easter Bunny play jokester

April Fools’ Day isn’t far from Easter Sunday (Easter lands on Sunday, April 17, 2022). It’s the perfect opportunity to let your Easter Bunny have a little fun early this year. If you’ve already stocked up on Easter candy, carefully unpeel the foil from some foil-wrapped chocolate eggs and reuse the wrap to cover individual grapes for a sweet (and silly) surprise.

Sleep time switcharoo

On the night before April 1, sneak in to your kiddo’s room and make some changes that will surprise them in the morning. Turn the chair upside down, put underwear on the dolls… even switch sleeping siblings into each other’s beds. They’ll wake up to a silly surprise… and know they’re in for a fun and prank-filled April Fool’s Day.

Freaky Faucet

To make the water run an unexpected color, unscrew the faucet cap. Inside, place tablets used for dying Easter eggs. Then replace the cap. Or, get a similar effect by swabbing the inside of the faucet with food coloring. Either way, they’ll turn on the water and watch the whole sink turn a dramatic color!

Shower gag

Unscrew the cap from their everyday shampoo, conditioner, or shower gel. Inside, affix a small piece of plastic wrap — then re-screw the cap. When they squeeze that bottle and nothing comes out — over and over again — they’ll eventually figure out it’s an April Fool’s gag.

Short sheet

Short sheet

Ahh, the old summer camp classic. Indeed, the short sheet maneuver is tried and true; it’s also fairly easy to accomplish with just five minutes of sneaky folding any time before ‘lights out.’ Make the bed with the top sheet as you normally would, except this time, instead of the tucking the top sheet at the foot of the bed, fold it back toward the headboard, essentially making a little sleep sack, or the “short sheet.” This one will work best for slightly older kids—‘cause let’s be honest, April Fool’s really isn’t worth throwing a wrench in your toddlers delicate bedtime routine.

Potty humor

Potty humor

For an April Fool’s trick that’s actually also a delicious treat, try baking up a batch of cookies that look convincingly like mounds of poop. Have fun placing them around the house, like under your kids' stuffed animals' butts, or in a (clean, disposable) kitty litter box lined with graham cracker crumbs. The recipe shown here is fully edible and delicious, made from chocolate chip cake batter, butter, and cream cheese.

Snack swap

Snack swap

There’s a good chance that the Easter candy season is in full swing by the time April Fool’s Day rolls around. What does that mean to you? For starters, it’s an excuse to gorge yourself on Cadbury Creme Eggs. That’s right, friends: Go ahead and indulge in any tinfoil wrapped candy you choose—just don’t destroy the evidence. Instead, use those empty wrappers to conceal grapes for the ultimate bait and switch. (But maybe set one piece of chocolate aside for your crestfallen kid.)

Cookies Steak

Fake a steak (with faux fries)

Serve dessert that looks like dinner! Cut a slab of chocolate ice cream from a large carton, wrap in plastic wrap and form into a steak shape with your hands. Freeze until firm, then press lines into the ice cream with a skewer and sprinkle the lines with chocolate wafer crumbs to resemble grill marks. For the fries, cut frozen pound cake into sticks with a crinkle cutter, toss with melted butter and bake at 350° for 8 minutes, or until golden. Serve with strawberry jam.

Bedtime mishap

Bedtime mishap

You’ll need to do some pre-planning to pull this off, but trust us, it’ll be well-worth it. First, get a bed pad to waterproof their mattress. Then after your kid goes to sleep, sneak in and pour some water into their blankets. They’ll momentarily be horrified as they think they’ve wet the bed, but the sweet sigh of relief after they find out your little prank will be exhilarating.

Snack sabotage

Offer the kids a tantalizing-looking bowl of Easter candy… or is it? Nope, you’ll have wrapped foil from chocolate eggs around ordinary green grapes. It creates a highly convincing illusion — and a very rude surprise at unwrapping time!

Serve a foolish meal

Serve a foolish meal

Faux foods have become a delicious way to celebrate April Fools. This is an easy April Fools’ prank for kids that will make the whole family laugh at the dinner table. Serve half of a canned peach atop a flat circle of vanilla yogurt to create a fake fried egg in the morning. (You can serve that with cinnamon-sprinkled apple faux fries.)

For dinner, make meatloaf and separate it into cupcake tins, and frost the “cupcakes” with mashed potato frosting as a special “dessert for dinner.” And for dessert? Try “grilled cheese” made with slices of pound cake as the bread and gooey yellow frosting in lieu of cheese. The kids’ “juice” can be jello refrigerated in glasses, with straws embedded for an extra realistic touch.

Spring forward—again!

Spring forward—again!

This is an easy April Fools’ prank for kids that can actually be played year-round. After your kids are asleep, set the clocks forward yet another hour—then wake them up by announcing that you’re all late for a very important date! See how quickly they scramble (and how long it takes before they realize the correct time). Keep the laughs going with these April Fools’ Day memes.

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