Schools

Watch Poplar Tree Elementary's Principal Kiss a Pig

Principal Sharon Smith Williams kissed a pig in honor of her students "pigging out on reading."

Sharon Smith Williams will do anything it takes to get her students at Poplar Tree Elementary to read more. And she proved that on Friday afternoon, when to excited cheers and applause from her students, she puckered up for a pig. 

As part of a program called "Pig Out on Reading," Williams promised the students that if they read 5,000 books in just over a month, she would kiss a pig. Inspired by the popular children's book, Our Principal Promised to Kiss a Pig, Williams enlisted the help of Farmer Minor, who travels with his pig Daisy and two pug dogs to schools around the country for similar events. 

See photos: Students meet Farmer Minor and Daisy the Pig 

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Poplar Tree does a reading program every year. Last the goal was to reach 3,000 books, and Screech from the Washington Nationals visited once the students met the goal. They easily met it, said Julie Majkowski, a reading teacher, so the challenge was raised this year. 

There were incentives to urge the kids on before Farmer Minor arrived. When the students reached 2,000 books, all of the staff wore their hair in pigtails. At 4,000 books, not long before the big day, the staff all wore pig noses.

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So how does it feel to kiss a pig?

"Awesome. Awesome," Williams said. "I never thought in my whole career as a principal, that I would actually kiss a pig. But I did! That is some pig."


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