The german term "spötteln" means -perhaps- a light version of "spotten" for which LEO.org gives english words like "to jeer", "scibe", "scoff" or "taunt".
But "spötteln" has something much lighter than "spott", for me it has - without really bad-will- a lightly amused state of mind in the speaker ... difficult to say...

Q: What would be an enlish approximation to this?