A selection of English ESL prank printables

This conversation-based lesson on an April Fool's Day Prank will get your student talking. 



Start the lesson with a few warm-up questions then move on to a vocabulary matching activity. 



Watch a YouTube video which you can get a sneak peek of here: https://youtu.be/LZEb9i__AeU

and then answer listening comprehension questions. 



Retell the conversation using visual aids, teach idioms related to April Fool's, joking, and humor. 



Students will discuss humor in their countries, then use some vocabulary and phrases from the lesson as they write sentences and personalize the language. 



Ask students to watch the video again and complete the lesson with a missing words gap fill. 



This is one of more than 400 lessons in the Pocket Passport library. Learn more: www.pocketpassport.com or email us: info@pocketpassport.com



April Fool's Day Prank

Answering questions about April Fool's Day. Analyzing the pictures and describing the practical jokes and pranks depicted in them. Analyzing the realted vocabulary.

PRANKS and Questions about APRIL FOOLS

A mysterious Halloween prank has gone terribly wrong at school. Fake blood, a fallen skeleton, and a scream over the loudspeaker cause total chaos—but who’s responsible? In this engaging mystery-style worksheet, students read six short interviews, each giving a different version of events, and must decide who they think is to blame. The lesson focuses on reading comprehension, deduction, and speaking skills, while reinforcing Halloween-related vocabulary in context. Students complete a vocabulary match and gap-fill activity before moving on to comprehension questions and a group discussion where they debate theories and defend their opinions. This no-grammar lesson is perfect for A2–B1 learners and works well as a 45–60 minute Halloween activity that combines mystery, teamwork, and fun.

The Halloween Prank – Who’s to Blame?

Students read a story about Brian, who got pranked on his camping trip by his friends. They fill in the worksheet, either alone or in groups and check their answers.

That time I got pranked | Reading Comprehension | Past Tenses

Use the time indicators below to complete the dialogues concerning this prank in the correct tense. All past, present and future tenses may apply. Some blanks may have multiple correct answers.



LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynvKWYvyCqw



Tense Review (all past, present, future tenses) with funny prank video!!

This worksheet could be used as an addition to your lesson about Art/ Street Art/ Artists etc. It is based on a short piece of news about one of Banksy's pranks. It consists of WARM UP section where your Ss need to answer the questions and do the quiz; WHILE YOU WATCH section where you will work on some vocabulary; and, of course, AFTER YOU WATCH section where you can discuss Banksy's influence and his works. 

Banksy. Graffiti. Video worksheet.

Rread about some of the pranks that have been pulled over the years and make your own.

April Fool's Hoaxes

This is a handout for a listening activity based on the following YouTube video about April Fools Pranks that went wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChAMW3oBgX8

These are all open questions. You can either let your students only listen to the soundtrack or let them watch the video as well (it contains some clues to the answers).

Key is included.

Idea for a pre-exercise: Ask students about April Fools pranks from their experience.

April Fools - listening exercise

This is an April Fools worksheet with a brief explanation of the holiday and pranks, along with a short wordfill, and a critical thinking exercise. Useful for around the end of March and April 1. 

April Fools

An anecdote about a girl who played a prank on a boy. Practise for RC and past simple tense. They complete the true or false section and then answer the questions. Key included. 

RC: At Mick's Cafe

Students must read this easy reading comprehension text about April Fool's Day and answer questions about the text. Students will learn the origin of April Fool's Day and vocabulary like trick, prank, silly, joke, etc. This video should be used with the lesson: https://youtu.be/U3N6LSWbpMs


Answers are provided on the second page with the teacher guide! 

April Fool's Day Simple Reading Comprehension with Video

These are twelve questions on different holidays. Ask your students to talk about what they would do on these holidays. If you don't know any April Fool's prank, google it and it'll make you laugh.

holiday questions

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

15 Prank English ESL worksheets pdf & doc