The Great Pumpkin Gut Slime Fest strikes again
From front, Superintendent Paul Anselmo, sixth grade teacher Wilma Hahn, and Principal Susie Luckey sit in the auditorium at Idaho Hill Elementary School while students, and some teachers, throw "pumpkin guts" on them as a reward for hitting their reading quota for the fall quarter.
OLDTOWN — Idaho Hill Elementary students had a chance to slime their teachers as a reward for hitting their reading quota for the fall quarter.
Superintendent Paul Anselmo, principal Susie Luckey, and sixth-grade teacher Wilma Hahn got slimed by dozens of well-read students on Thursday during the Great Pumpkin Gut Slime Fest.
Pumpkins with the stems already removed were waiting for students on the gymnasium stage. Below was a plastic tarp to protect the carpeting where all three administrators sat, also protected by plastic ponchos and hairnets.
However, Anselmo was not afforded the luxury of a hairnet, having to endure pieces of pumpkin being plopped straight onto his head.
One by one, students who hit their reading goal grabbed a handful of pumpkin guts, walked to the front of the stage, and threw them atop the noggins of their authority figures.
“If they only got this excited about their school work as they do about sliming us,” Smiley said Thursday after the event.
This is the fifth year that the school has held the slime fest, although the school holds different themed events every quarter to reward the students for achieving their reading books.
The slime fest is the messiest of the awards. The “Winter Olympics” are held for the winter quarter, a movie day at the Roxy for the spring, and a field trip to Riley Creek as a reward for summer.
Student participation in the challenge increased once the teachers joined in the competition. Before, it was one grade versus another. The staff almost beat the winning group, the sixth grade class, which is why Hahn was the teacher that was slimed on Thursday.
In addition to the reading challenge, the elementary school has custom posters hung around the hallways of the school that encourage students to read.
Students get to add some of the books they read to their personal libraries. The program is made possible by grant funding from the Idaho Hill Sponsor Program, the Idaho Communication Foundation, and the Community Assistance League of Sandpoint.