One-Eyed, One-Horned, Giant, Purple People-Eater

The Project

The principal at my kids' elementary school asked me to create a fun, all-school event based around our school's core values (you know... friendship, citizenship, caring, etc.). The school goal was to help the kids learn the core values AND put the values into practice. My goal was to make the event fun and unforgettable. The kids response was SO overwhelming and wonderful (I am unofficially a school celebrity and can't go on campus without random kids stopping me to chat) that I thought I'd share what I did in case anyone else wants to try it too. If you live nearby and would like to borrow my props, shoot me an email. I am happy to share.

Below is a day-by-day view of how the event unfolded. It took three weeks (not including the 'winners' parties) and was a huge amount of work. But worth every moment.

Our school has 750ish students ranging from Kinder to 6th grade. Because Kinders are on a vastly different schedule / program, they didn't participate in the GPPE event. All the other grades did and even the 6th graders enjoyed it.

(On my computer, the GPPE in the photo to the left looks almost blue. In real life, he's a brilliant shade of purple.)

Week One: Monday

The kids arrived at school Monday morning to find an egg sitting in the central quad. No explanation was given. Not even the adults knew what was going on (Only our Principal and Home and School Club President were in on it.).

Close up of the sign:

The kids spent all day discussing this odd development as nothing had ever happened like this before. The theories about the egg were outrageous and lots of fun.

At the end of the school day, a second sign had been posted at the exit of the driveway (where the kids and parents could see it as they left campus). Again, no explanation was given.

(It says 'Please Welcome Our Egg' in case it's too small to read.)

Week One: Tuesday

The next day the kids arrived to find the egg and signs still in place. But now the egg had a message on it.

The buzz at school was crazy! The teachers, the aids, even the janitors, all asked each other what was going on, but no one had any idea.

Week One: Wednesday

Wednesday morning, the kids arrived to a different sign.

And the banner at the driveway got an extra line:

Yup, the egg was from the country of Kazakhstan. Pretty much no one knew where Kazakhstan was, and when asked, I told them to go look it up.

Week One: Thursday

Yet another sign in the morning.

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.)

Week One: Friday - Preparation

In Preparation for Friday morning assembly, I put together a packet of stuff for the teachers and placed it in their boxes Thursday after school. On top was a sticky note saying not to open any of it until after Friday assembly:

It included four things. An instructional letter to the teacher. An envelope with a GPPE stamp. A letter to the kids (inside the envelope). A stack 50 GPPE edible purple papers.

Instructions to the Teacher:

TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS
Please DO NOT open the attached envelope until AFTER Friday Assembly on September 23^rd!
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 26^th to the 29^th. 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 29^th).
On Friday, September 30^th, 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 letter ended with my contact information. (Not a single kid wrote a letter to Pricilla. Which surprised me!)

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 of
One-Eyed, One-Horned, Giant, Purple People-Eaters
PO Box 01134
Cincinnati, OH 95037

September 23^rd, 2011

<TEACHER’s> Class
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Elementary School
1111 Fake Address Here
Somewhere, 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. Parley
President
The Society for The Preservation and Domestication of
One-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.

People-Eater Paper
Specially 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                         Trustworthy
Citizenship                                 Caring                              Responsibility
Teamwork                                  Respect                            Perseverance
Description 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.

I used MS Words Mail Merge feature to personalize everything (except the purple paper form) with teacher's names, etc.

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).