April Fools Day for Preschoolers

 Let me just start by saying how hard it was to find stuff to do for my almost 5yr old son for April Fool's Day. Most of the practical jokes and fake food ideas were geared toward the older kids. Here's what I found and did for my son:

Most of the recipes I saw were either in the dessert category or was ground beef and potatoes (which my son doesn't eat) so these are the ones I choose:

April Fools Food Breakfast Pizza

1. Heat oven to 400 F. Flatten 2 Biscuits (see note) into 3 1/2" rounds, leaving a thicker border to resemble pizza crust. Bake 6 minutes, or until golden brown.

2. Spread Biscuits with 2 tsp. Ketchup each. Divide cooked Egg between them and top with sliced Sausages and 1 Tbs. grated Cheese. Microwave on high 10 seconds to lightly melt Cheese.

Bake remaining Biscuits as is or make more pizzas. I left off the sausages and he still loved it. You could also use an English muffin instead of the biscuits.

http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=9136


Fake Hot Dogs And French Fries

Peel a banana and spread peanut butter all over it to give it the appearance of a hot dog. Serve it in a hot dog bun with some strawberry preserve drizzled over the hotdog to make it look like ketchup.

For the fries, peel some apples and cut them into sticks resembling fresh fries. Roll them in a cinnamon and sugar mixture and bake them for 8 to 10 minutes in a preheated 400 F oven. Serve with a side of strawberry preserve as fake ketchup.

I followed the directions with the apples and was completely disappointed in how they turned out. I highly recommend that you don’t bake them at all. The cinnamon sugar mixture caramelized and made them stick to the pan and each other. It also made them chewy and he did not like them. In my opinion just cutting the apples into sticks that look like fries and rolling them in the mixture would have work a whole lot better and still given you the appearance you were looking for.


Monster Milk

My son is all about monsters and I had read during my research to make Alien milk (green food coloring) but since he's into monsters I used blue food coloring and called it Monster Milk!

You could also use it at the breakfast table. Everyone will do a double take when they witness this deliciously deceptive ruse. The trick makes milk change color when it's poured on top of cereal.


Ingredients:
Liquid food coloring
Dry cereal
Milk

Instructions:
To set up the trick, squeeze several drops of liquid food coloring over the bottom of a bowl, then pour in dry cereal to conceal the droplets. When a family member sits down to his cereal and adds some milk, he'll think he's entered a Technicolor twilight zone.


Fake Lemonade

Prepare some lemon Jell-O and pour it into glasses. Add a straw and let it set. It will look just like a glass of lemonade. You can even decorate the glass with a slice of lemon.

I had intended to do this for his preschool class but completely forgot that it takes 4 hours for Jell-O to set, so your best bet is to do this the night before. I used small clear plastic cups and had him help me make it for a prank to his daddy. He loved being involved.

http://www.foodpeer.com/article_sections/explanations_stories/april_fools_day_treats_you_are_serving_what_for_dinner


Grilled Cheese

Pound cake
Sugar-free Cool whip
Red and Yellow food coloring

I saw this idea on familyfun.com but I made few adjustments. You slice a pound cake (I used Sara Lee) and once thawed slice it thin to look like bread slices. Then toast in toaster or toaster oven until lightly browned. Then tint cool whip with food coloring until you get a nice orange color. You will only need about 2 drops of the red. They said to use icing but I served this prior to dinner (which was a real grilled cheese). This is also when we served our fake lemonade.

For more fun food, crafts pranks please check out http://familyfun.go.com/april-fools-day/


ACTIVITES:
Here are a few things I found that was preschool friendly:

Q:  What do you call a dog with no tail?
A:  A hot dog!

Q:  Where do sheep get their hair cut?
A:  At the baa-baa shop!

Q:  Why is six afraid of seven?
A:  Because seven ate nine!

Q:  Why did the elephant sit on a marshmallow?
A:  To keep from falling into the hot chocolate!


Say April Fools after each statement:

I saw a fish swimming in a tree.

Summer is fun because we can make lots of snowballs.

Dad likes to wash his pickup in the bathtub.


APRIL FOOLS’ DAY ANIMAL SONG
Tune:  “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”

Old MacDonald had a farm.  E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had a cow. E-I-E-I-O.
With an oink, oink her, and an oink, oink there,
Here an oink, there an oink,
Everywhere an oink, oink.
Old MacDonald had a farm.  E-I-E-I-O.

                       
Continue singing about other April Fools’ Day animals, such as a sheep that moos, a pig that neighs, a horse that quacks, and a duck that baas.

This was so much fun that he went to preschool that day and sang it for the class.

For more April Fools Fun check out:
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/holiday_station03/holiday_station_april03.shtml