Instructions to the Teacher:
The letter ended with my contact information. (Not a single kid wrote a letter to Pricilla. Which surprised me!)TEACHER INSTRUCTIONSPlease DO NOT open the attached envelope until AFTER Friday Assembly on September 23rd!I hope your kids are all excited about the egg that has been sitting in the quad this past week. The occupant of the egg is hatching Friday morning and we are going to use him to play some games based around the school’s core values. This sheet contains instructions for the first game running September 26th to the 29th. So…Sometime after Friday Assembly, please open and read the attached letter with your class.Starting on Monday, a baby Purple People-Eater will sit in the quad in the same location as the egg. He’s hungry.Attached to this letter is the paper that your kids can feed to him. Kids need to catch each other performing good deeds (core values), write everything they see down on the purple paper, and then put the purple paper inside of the Purple People-Eaters mouth during lunch and recess. There are enough pages for one per child plus a few extras (feel free to use them), but no more.How you handle the purple paper in the classroom is entirely up to you. Please feel free to make up any rules necessary. Also, please feel free to adjust the purple paper forms for your age group. For example, first / second graders will not likely be able to read the form. Have them fill it out however you want: I’ll take anything that is fed to the Purple People-Eater. The goal is fun rather than perfection.I do ask that you space out how many purple papers are fed to the Purple People-Eater each lunch/recess/day. Two to three per time period is probably good. Otherwise we’ll get tons and tons the first day and run out of paper for the last day (Last Day being Thursday, September 29th).On Friday, September 30th, I’ll announce which class had the BEST (not the most) good deeds. That class will get to name our Purple People-Eater. Then there is a second game planned for the following week (instructions forthcoming).If the kids have questions, feel free to make up whatever rules you want. If they have questions you can’t (or don’t want to) answer, tell them to write a letter to Pricilla P. Parley. Send those letters to the office, and I will do my best to answer as many as possible.Thanks so much for putting up with the craziness! I hope the kids enjoy our visitor and learn a bit too.
The envelope was a regular business envelope with a special stamp (see graphic at top of blog).
The letter to the classes read:
The Society for the Preservation and Domestication ofOne-Eyed, One-Horned, Giant, Purple People-EatersPO Box 01134Cincinnati, OH 95037
September 23rd, 2011
<TEACHER’s> ClassXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Elementary School1111 Fake Address HereSomewhere, CA 99999
Dear <TEACHER>’s <GRADE> Grade Class –
Congratulations on your school being awarded a One-Eyed, One-Horned, Giant, Purple People-Eater Egg. It isn’t just any school that receives such an honor and XXXXXXXX was selected out of 500 million schools.As you may already know, Purple People-Eaters are native to the high mountainous areas of Kazakhstan (If you don’t know where that it, you’d better look it up). In their native land, they remain hidden during the daytime and hunt at night. They will eat brown bears, deer, and hedgehogs, but have a sweet-tooth for people.The people of Kazakhstan don’t like being eaten and have killed so many Purple People-Eaters that they are in danger of going extinct. Our society sends a yearly expedition into the high mountains to collect Purple People-Eater eggs in the hopes that we can teach them to be friendly to their human neighbors.If your Purple People-Eater learns to like people while living at your school, we will send him on an airplane (first class) to live in his native habitat with other friendly Purple People-Eaters. If he fails to learn to like people, he must be sent to live on a deserted island where he can’t hurt anyone, but will be very lonely. Please do your best to teach your Purple People-Eater to like you.Included with this letter is your Purple People-Eater Paper. Watch the other students in your class to catch them performing good deeds (and perform good deeds yourself). Write those good deeds on the paper (your teacher gets to decide how and when you do this) and feed the paper to the Purple People-Eater starting on Monday. Be careful of his teeth though. He is a baby, and it may take a while for him to understand he shouldn’t bite.Also, Don’t feed all your Purple People-Eater Paper to your Purple People-Eater on the first day!!! This will give him a stomach ache. Feed him two or three purple papers every recess and lunch so he stays full. The happier your Purple People-Eater is, the bigger he will grow and the more he will like you. If you have any questions, please write me a letter and ask you teacher to mail it to me.
Best Regards,
Priscilla P. ParleyPresidentThe Society for The Preservation and Domestication ofOne-Eyed, One-Horned, Giant, Purple People-Eaters
I purchased light purple paper at Staples. The GPPE form fits two to a page (so for the entire school I ended up with 1000 forms). **The form didn't cut / paste well here, but everything lines up properly on the original. I can email a 'perfect' copy if needed.
I used MS Words Mail Merge feature to personalize everything (except the purple paper form) with teacher's names, etc.
People-Eater PaperSpecially designed to satisfy the hunger and cravings of One-Eyed, One-Horned, Giant, Purple People-Eaters.
Student Name:___________________________________________________Teacher Name: ________________________________ Grade: ____________Name(s) of Student(s) performing Core Value: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Circle Core Value Witnessed:
Giving Friendship TrustworthyCitizenship Caring ResponsibilityTeamwork Respect PerseveranceDescription of Behavior Witnessed: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________For use with Purple People-Eaters Only. Not for Human Consumption. May cause cramping, vomiting, and unusual hair growth. © 2011. The Society for the Preservation and Domestication of One-Eyed, One-Horned, Giant, Purple People-Eaters. All Rights Reserved.
The kids found the form confusing. The younger kids couldn't do it at all and I told the teachers that I'd accept absolutely anything the kids fed to the GPPE (and did). In hindsight I might simplify the language a bit. I was going for 'official' but it was too much over their heads. I'd also include in the teacher's letter that the kids are to observe the good deeds at school. One of the teacher's (in confusion) sent the purple paper home and had their parents fill it out (which I accepted, but it wasn't the goal).
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