IN THE CLASSROOM -- The Turkey Bowl

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA - Students flung frozen birds across the gym at TeWinkle

Middle School on Monday morning to celebrate getting good grades.

And if that sounds strange to you, you haven’t heard the half of it.

They also stuck slices of bread smeared with peanut butter on parents

and teachers covered in trash bags, and they stomped on balloons tied to

their classmates’ ankles.

It was the little-known annual tradition at TeWinkle called the Turkey

Bowl.

The Turkey Bowl is an assembly to reward students who have earned all

C grades or better during the first semester of school, along with a

satisfactory or outstanding rating in citizenship.

“The purpose is to have a good time and celebrate good grades,” said

Shelley Lang, the school’s activity director.

And did they ever have a good time.

Not only did they miss a class period, which several students dubbed

the best part of the assembly, they were given permission to act crazy.

Students were divided into two teams, red and gold, and competed in

some unusual events.

First, the young scholars stood in a line holding hands with their

teammates and passed Hula-Hoops along their bodies without letting go of

each other’s hands.

Next was the balloon stomp.

Red team members tied black balloons to their ankles, while gold team

member had colored balloons strapped on. The goal: stomp on and pop all

the opposing team’s balloons.

Next came the pies. Twelve paper plates, each with a slice of pie

topped with whipped cream, lined the gym floor.

Students lay on their bellies with their hands behind their backs and

dug in at the word “go.”

I’d bet those students are still trying to digest that pie.

Whoever came up with this next one had quite an imagination: One by

one, students in a line squatted, grabbed a handful of peanut butter off

a paper plate and smeared it on a slice of bread.

Then, they ran to the opposite end of the gym and stick that half a

sandwich to a parent or teacher wearing a garbage bag.

Very strange.

Finally, the namesake of the event -- bowling with frozen turkeys. It

was just that.

“It’s really great,” said Chris Albergue, 13, of the event after

bowling a strike with a five-pound bird. “I think the turkey bowling has

been the best part. The whole part of having a frozen chicken and bowling

with it is great.”

The strangest part of all was that students thought the event was a

great incentive to get good grades. Who would have known?