By BROOKE TERILLI

Staff WriterWriter

As the end of March approaches, there are two things to look forward to: Easter and April Fools’ Day.

April Fools’ Day dates back as far as the 1500s and is still practiced in many countries around the world.

This is a day for friends, family and co-workers to play practical jokes on each other. The key to April Fools’ Day is to have fun and not make everyone mad at you. Here are just a few ideas that you can use on campus.

It’s been done many times and many ways, but it never gets old: cover your roommate or suitemate’s door with plastic wrap so that when they walk out, they are stopped by an invisible barrier.

You may choose to add to the confusion and use newspaper so they can’t see what’s outside the door at all. If you have leftover plastic wrap you may choose to wrap everything in their room or cover the shower or toilet. Just remember, these could get messy. 

Another popular prank is using sticky notes to plaster someone’s car or walls in their rooms. Before you cover the car, make sure your friend doesn’t have anywhere important to be that day because it may take a while to get all the sticky notes off. 

Another prank, taken from the article “Harmless Dorm Pranks,” had this to offer: wake someone up to an unfamiliar noise. You may want to save this one for a person who has a private dorm room. 

Take a battery-operated alarm clock, set the alarm to a time in the middle of the night, then hide it in the person’s room. They will be awakened by the sound of the alarm and have to get up to try to find out where it’s coming from.

For an interesting variation on this prank, take the alarm clock and put it into a zipped plastic sandwich bag. Then visit your friend in their room and ask to use the bathroom. While you are using the facilities, take the alarm clock and put it into the toilet tank. 

Once the alarm clock goes off, the person will need some time to figure out where the strange noise is coming from. They aren’t likely to look in the toilet for the source of the disturbance.

Friends aren’t the only people you can prank. Pranking your professors will take a little more sneakiness, but it can be done.

One way this goal can be accomplished will take communication with your entire class. Agree as a class to show up ten or fifteen minutes late to class, and convince the professor that class actually starts at that time.

A variation on this prank is to show up to class ten or fifteen minutes early, and convince the professor he or she is late. If this is successful, you may enjoy a shortened class period that day.

Before the professor arrives to class, reset the clock ten minutes fast. When the clock says it’s time to go, start packing up to leave class. This prank will only work if your professor doesn’t wear a watch and isn’t time conscientious.

While coming up with pranks for April Fools’ Day can be entertaining, there is one crucial thing to keep in mind: your actions may have consequences, so be prepared to accept a prank in return when your friends seek revenge. Most importantly, be a good sport about everything.