Week Two: Friday Preparation

I did quite a bit of preparation for this day, much of it way in advance.  The Burp tiles are a 8 foot by 4 foot very thin piece of plywood cut into 250ish rectangles.  I painted them white on both side.  Then I divided them by grade and painted grade numbers (1 - 6) on one side.  On the other side, I put the letters to our school core values.  I only wanted it to be possible for one class per grade to win, so I painted them like (this is sixth grade - I gave them the shortest word as they were the least likely to get excited about participating):

C - 8 tiles
A - 6 tiles
R - 1 tile
I - 5 tiles
N - 3 tiles
G - 7 tiles

It was important to me to use wood as I was worried about rain and / or kids destroying them.  I had also hoped to use them again, but so many didn't make it back to me that it isn't possible.

I also made scrolls (1 for each class) of the word the classes were to spell out.  I was going to just make single-paged printer-paper posters, but that just didn't seem impressive enough, so I hand painted them  (I ended up purchasing a quart of purple house paint from Home Depot.  It was the cheapest way to do all the signs).

Some of the finished scrolls. 













I rolled them up and tied them with a pretty ribbon (not purple, but I was worried about my budget).  I attached a small tag with this note:

Dear «Teacher»’s («Grade» Grade) Class –

As you may have noticed, your Giant, Purple People-Eater has burped and made a HUGE mess of your school.  It is your job to collect all the core value tiles that have your grade number on them.  In this scroll is the secret word that you need to spell using those tiles if you want to earn Purple, People-Eater cupcakes.  It will be hard, but you can do it!

And remember, you may only collect tiles during recess and lunch!

Thank you,

Pricilla P. Parley