Mr. Merriman Kissed a Pig
Posted 4.15.10
Prospect Hill Academy Lower School Director, Nanzetta Merriman made a dangerous bet with our school librarian, Karin Kugel. He bet his students wouldn’t be able to read 5,000 hours in 6 weeks (300,000 minutes to be exact). He figured that the kids have other things to do – like play on the internet and watch television and was so confident that they wouldn’t be able to meet this goal that he agreed to kiss a pig if they did.
But the kindergarten through fourth grade kids are “hog-wild” for books. They logged their reading on reading charts, and if they met their goal of thirty minutes a day, they were treated to weekly farm themed prize. The school counted adult recreational reading, stepped up on the read-alouds, and set aside time for DEAR reading. Mrs. Kugel marked their progress with regular assemblies showing the school wide progress chart and revealing parts of a farm themed bulletin board. Last week, they exceeded their goal with 5,811 hours and the date was set.
On April 14th, the school was visited by Farmer Minor and Daisy II (the world’s most famous pig). In the spirit of the event, the piggiest classes (with the highest reading totals) sported plastic pig snouts. Farmer Minor shared with the students all about Daisy – detailing where he sleeps (in the farmer’s bed), how clean he is (he showers with the famer), and his favorite books (all pig themed of course). Farmer Minor made the kids promise Daisy II that they would continue to read. Then, with a lot cheering and a chorus of “Kiss that Pig!”, a very reluctant Mr. Merriman, took the stage and puckered up. The kids went wild! Daisy II was quite pleased with his lip mate and let out a little snort. At the end of the assembly, Farmer Minor let each kid pet Daisy II and several gave him a little peck of their own.
Check out this video of our event.on Channel 7 News.
