April Fool's Day: Ideas for pranks

Our son's class was specutating about pranks their teacher could play on them for April Fool's Day. Two interesting ideas:

Idea 1: Give students squids with the ink-part intact, so that they get squirted with ink. (I'm not sure if anyone other than a teacher of a parent can appreciate the difference between an idea like "squirk ink on them" and "use an unclean squid so that they get squirted with ink". I find this to be a thoughtful and educated prank for a group of 8-year olds.)

Idea 2: Give them square-root problems to solve and tell them to do them in their heads, but choose ones are can't be done in their heads. Then watch them struggle. (I don't think I knew about square-roots when I was 8.)

Ketchup Patterns

It started years ago as a way to make my son laugh. When I squeeze ketchup on his plate, I usually draw something: a smiley-face, a word , a symbol (e.g. a heart if it's Valentine's day). Getting philosophic about it, it's pretty cool to pack fill one's life with little values like that.

Strikes me that this is the kind of thing Martha Stewart was teaching, in principle, in a different setting. It just a little bit of added fun to something that's otherwise unspectacular. It's "a good thing", as long as it remains a non-sacrificial value. That's to say, the enjoyment you get from it is worth the effort that goes into it.

As for the "Sat" in the picture here, what can I say... it was an early breakfast and my mind was sluggish. It was Saturday.. so, "Sat" it was.