Poisson d'avril - April Fool's Day Fun in French with KS1 and 2

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

Now while in Spanish-speaking countries, pranks are practised on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents. The French celebrate April Fool’s Day on the 1st just as we do, so why not have a little fishy fun with your class this year?

For more info about the origins of the tradition – known as ‘Poisson d’avril’ in France – try Wikipedia or Emma Davies’ English explanation. The general idea is that children make a picture of a fish, cut it out and try to stick it on someone’s back without them noticing, which is a lot kinder than the usual ‘kick me’ post-it notes I’ve seen stuck on people in English schools! La Maternelle de Moustache has an example here with a little rhyme and picture to colour.

For those with a musical bent here is a ‘Les Poissons d’avril’ song with lyrics and music to download from chansonsnettes.net or check out Momes.net

Lots of lovely craft activities around – try this Origami fish from P’titClic.net which also has online games, craft activites, recipes, colouring pages, ecards, traditions and ideas for pranks and even some simple riddles (charades) to solve.

Or maybe this yummy recipe from FetesEnfants.com which also has Printable fish to colour. While at Teteamodeler there are lots of ideas including labelling the parts of a fish!

Looking for some silly April Fool pranks – watch this French newsreader reporting the removal of the third floor of the Eiffel Tower for repairs..(and in English this is NASA reporting a Quidditch match in Space).

On a Fishy theme there are several sites with ideas on exploiting the Rainbow Fish in French – from our very own Alison Houseman’s lessons for KS1/Yr 3, to West Sussex GFL and Hugo L’Escargot’s beautiful pages to print and colour.

Download a simple fishy maths game I adapted from a contribution made by ‘Fuzzie’ to the TES site (the original download in English is http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Resource.aspx?resourceId=5742 )
fishy_counting_in_French.doc
and don’t forget to let the children have a play on Poisson Rouge!