Week One: Friday

 The kids arrived at school to a shock.  The egg had broken into two pieces.

They discussed it.  They tried to put it back together.  Then when they did put it back together, an adult (not realizing it was previously broken) bumped into it causing the top part to fall.  The group of kids surrounding the table panicked!  (I stood on the other side of the quad trying not to laugh because no one knew yet who was behind it all).  The picture is of a really, really small group of kids.

Every Friday morning our entire school gathers in the quad for a short assembly.  I'd prearranged with our Principal to speak.  She introduced me with little fanfare as a parent with a short message.  Below is a sort-of version of what I said (sorry, it's long).  I really hammed it up, acted super-excited, and then used long pauses (American Idol style) to up the drama.  The kids reactions were hilarious!

Oh my goodness.  I’m so excited.  I can’t believe we won.  Isn’t this the most exciting, the best, the most wonderful thing that has ever happened at Nordstrom?  When I got the LETTER… Well you could’ve knocked me over with a feather.

Wait…  You know what I’m talking about right?

No?  You haven’t received the LETTER yet?  Oh my goodness, I didn’t know you guys had no idea what was going on.

And now I get to be the one to tell you!

But you, you saw the egg, right?  And you saw that it cracked, right?

Our school has been selected… to raise… and domesticate… a one-eyed, one-horned, giant, purple people-eater!  Now this isn’t to be confused with a one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people-eater.  The flying type is pretty famous thanks to that song that got written about him.  But ours doesn’t fly.  The Purple People-Eater Society felt there would be too much of a danger of a flying Purple People-Eater simply flying away.

So we got a Giant Purple People-Eater.  Of course, he’s not giant right now.  He’s just a baby.  And he’s hiding somewhere around                   our school.  Do you see him?

Okay, so here’s what we need to do.  All day today, keep an eye out for him.  We want him to get used to us.  So if you spot him, feel free to take a look.  Point to him.  Tell you friends.  But don’t get to close and don’t do anything scare him.  We want him getting used to us.

And if we do that today and all weekend, then on Monday he’ll sit quietly in the quad where his egg was and let us feed him.

What do you feed Purple People-Eaters?  Well, not people, that’s for sure.  In fact, our goal is to teach him to like people and not eat him.  So The Society for Purple People-Eaters sent us some special People-Eater Paper.  What we have to do is look for Nordstrom Students performing good deeds.  What do we call good deeds at our school?  That’s right.  Core values.

We catch other students doing the core values.  We write it down on the special, extra delicious, People-Eater Paper.  Then we fold it up and during recess and lunch we put it into the Purple People-Eaters Mouth.  Be careful, that he doesn’t bite you.

If we do a good job of it, our Purple People-Eater will grow from a baby into an adult.  And after seeing, and tasting, how wonderful people are, he will like us and not want to eat us.

But don’t feed him all on the first day.  How about 2 or 3 papers per class for each recess.  Otherwise he might get a stomach ache.

And the class that has the best (not the most, but the best) tasting good deeds…  Well, that class will get to name our Purple People-Eater.  I’ll tell you who that is next Friday.

So you know what you need to do, right?  Look for the Purple People-Eater today, but don’t get to close or scare him.  And on Monday start writing down your good deeds and feeding him so he’ll like us and grow.

Will you help me?  Good, because I’m SOOO excited.  Oh look, is that him on the top of the flag pole?  No?  False Alarm.  Okay, keep an eye out for him when it’s time to walk back to your class!

Then when the kids got back to class they had a special delivery envelope that repeated what they'd already heard (more on this in 'Week One: Friday - Preparation' Post below.

As the kids went about their business of the day they got peeks at the baby Giant Purple People-Eater (hereafter referred to as GPPE) in the distance.

The teacher that owned this car stopped to collect something and scared a bunch of kids who thought the baby might get run over.









The baby GPPE stayed behind the fence near the parking lot and the kids (ignoring half a dozen school rules) tried to run out into the driveway to get closer to him.  I stood there for a while answering questions (Why doesn't he move?  GPPEs are like sloths but even slower.  Is he real?  Of course.) and keeping things under control so that the yard duties didn't have to do it.  A problem I honestly hadn't anticipated (our kids are usually pretty good about rules).



Our janitor (who was wonderful the entire project) suggested sticking the GPPE on the school roof above the quad.  The baby GPPE spent lunch time up there with a school-full of kids below looking at him.  I WISH I'd gotten a picture, but I forgot.

He disappeared before the end of the day though.  So no parents got to see  him and the kids got the pleasure of telling their parents all about  him.  There was also a new sign at the end of the driveway as everyone went  home.

It was a FABULOUS day.  I'm not sure I've ever seen so much excitement at school.  (I was there off and on all day moving the baby GPPE around and keeping kids out of trouble.)