Our student leaders choose "buddy" classes...
I have the members of my student council buddy up with a lower grade class that does not have a representative on the council. This representative is responsible for visiting the class and explaining the Penny Harvest. They also act as cheerleaders and answer all questions. They write public service announcements which are read every morning when our principal makes her daily announcements. I have tremendous support from the administration. Ms. Cloutier, the principal makes announcements updating the school on the contest for the most penny sacks. Our staff is really competitive (in a good way). Our school encourages giving back to the community so in reality, the Penny Harvest is very easy.
--Tara McMaster, PS 7, Bronx
How do you kick off your Penny Harvest?
I make sure to involve my colleagues...
I send a letter to the staff when I give out the penny bags and the sacks. In the letter I highlight the charities that we helped with the previous Penny Harvest. We have a large bulletin board outside the library that monitors the progress. I also have our student council make presentations to each class. I don't like large group presentations. Our school has many initiatives (used book sale for homeless animals, canned food drive at Thanksgiving, etc.) This seems to work well in our school. We have a really active student council. With the staff and administration on board this kick off seems to work the best for us.
--Tara McMaster, PS 7, Bronx
Our student leaders package and distribute materials for each class...
Student leaders create Penny Harvest Kits for each class. The kits include Penny Harvest materials and a packet we make with Penny Harvest Curriculum Connections. Each student leader pair visits two classrooms, delivers the kits, makes an announcement to the class, and then passes out a penny to each student for their first contribution. Our principal also makes an announcement, we have a bulletin board outside of the cafeteria, and we have a large daily schedule board outside of the office- all feature announcements about Penny Harvest.
--Brita Daemgen, PS 116, Brooklyn
I host a Kickoff Assembly...
I run two assembly programs for the school—one for the lower grades and one for the upper grades. At the assembly, I allow my student leaders to explain what the program is and why it is important. They explain the competitions and prizes. We show parts of the Common Cents video and then the Student Leaders perform skits they wrote. The skits explain different aspects of the program including: how to neighborhood harvest and why the Penny Harvest is important.
--Liz Schneider, PS 114, Queens
How often do you schedule collections?
We organize weekly collections...
The pennies are collected once a week because routines work best for us. The grades are given a schedule as to when to bring the pennies to my room and every week during that time, students from each class deliver the pennies.
--Anselm Scrubb, PS 230, Brooklyn
Some coaches have the pennies stay in the classroom until the end of the harvest. At the end of the harvest the pennies are collected from the classes and consolidated together.
What do you do for a school-Wide competition?
I run two school-wide competitions...
I run two school-wide competitions at the same time. One is a Color Olympics. The classes are divided into three or four groups (I have done it both ways). Each group is the assigned a color. At the end of every week, the total pounds for each color are announced and children are encouraged to keep collecting so their team can win. The prize is usually a bookmark or pencil. (In the past, I have had organization donate the items or as the librarian, I occasionally am send free book marks). However, I think it is more about the bragging rights!
I also run an individual class competition. Our smaller classes (Pre-K’s and Special Ed) are combined to keep the numbers about equal to a general education class. The classes compete against each other to have the highest total amount of pounds. The winning class gets a Pizza Party. The second and third place classes each get an ice cream party.
--Liz Schneider, PS 144, Queens
How do you reward winning teams? How do you cover that expense?
Our top harvesters are rewarded with a field trip...
We reward our winning team by taking them on a trip. Last year, the first place team got to go to the Penny Harvest Field. This year they will go and do a service-learning project in our local neighborhood. I think that this is important because we want to be able to supplement the learning of the program and also help the kids to begin to understand that you can reward yourself through the spirituality of giving.
--Ashley Herring, PS 506, Brooklyn
We reward philanthropy with more philanthropy...
Early on in our Penny Harvesting, we could see that the students were hoping for a tangible reward for their hard work, above the certificate of recognition that each class receives. The students themselves had many suggestions, such as a block party (!) if we meet the goal or a pizza party for the highest harvesting class. Blocking off 110th Street to celebrate our penny haul was out of the question, and we adults had reservations about rewarding the childrens' philanthropic deeds with junk food. So, we finally settled on awarding the highest harvesting class its own roundtable. Every year we make a graph which shows how many pounds each class has and update it weekly. The graph is poster-size and hangs in the cafeteria where everyone can see it at some point during the day (including family members during drop off and pick up). This is our fourth year of having the roundtable as the "prize" and it works great. The students are incredibly motivated by it, as are many of the teachers. Invariably, the class that wins has a teacher who is enthusiastic about pennies, so I work with that person in the spring to co-lead the roundtable during a time that works for the class.
--Deanna Belcher, The School at Columbia, Manhattan
My principal donates a pizza or ice cream party...
My principal covers the cost of the pizza and ice cream parties. If that is not possible, you can ask your PA to contribute the funds for the parties.
--Liz Schneider, PS 144, Queens
How do you reflect or celebrate at the end of the gather Pennies phase?
I host a Tally Rally...
The week before we leave for school recess in December, I hold a Tally Rally. During this assembly each class gets an award for ”Making Pennies Powerful.” We also announce how many roundtables we were awarded. We acknowledge the winning classes and color team. Sometimes it is a stand alone assembly and other years it is combined with our holiday concert or other entertainment. Last year, we made a mock Penny Harvest Field and the children designed coins. On the coins, our students wrote about what they wanted to do with our roundtable funds.
--Liz Schneider, PS 144, Queens
Our principal recognizes the students over the PA system and at assemblies...
At the end of the Penny Harvest, all teams are rewarded by being recognized by the principal over the loud speaker and during an assembly. This is tough for our school because we have no penny harvest budget and we've been working to see how to improve this phase. We don't know if we want to reward with prizes though because we don't know if we want to connect student learning and material rewards. This is an on-going conversation between me and my co-coach.
--Ashley Herring, PS 506, Brooklyn
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