1. A time for giving to those without any money for Christmas.
2. Another time for students to get distracted during class.
3. A time for students to remember how to count money.
4. A time for healthy competition between classes.
5. A great time for second graders to learn about negative numbers.
6. A time Mrs. Busch is glad is over.
7. A time for students to steal from those less fortunate.
Yes, you read the last one correctly. There was much stealing involved in this years penny war. I will come back to that one. Let me explain the penny war to you. Each class has a jar labeled with their name on it. You place pennies and dollars in your own jar. They are positive points. The silver coins are negative points. The kids can place these coins in other classes jars before school, after school, at recess, and at lunch. That is called "bombing." The class with the most positive points and the class with the most money at the end of the week each receive a trophy. The kids love it! They spend every moment possible bombing.
There is a giant chart in the hall to allow each student to check their status and the status of others. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each category is marked with a star. It helps the students decide who to bomb. (Green is positive and pink is negative. We were out of the traditional Christmas colors. I know. I tried to use some today.)
At the end of Thursday, we were still in the positive. We are never going to win, though. Not even close.
The problem, to the chagrin of our teachers, is that there were no real rules set in place. "It's only a week. Deal with it." That was the statement we got. We have three different recesses at our school, therefore, students popped into our rooms at all times of the day. It was so noisy they had to declare that everyone needed to use the "sneak attack" strategy. Also, there was nobody patrolling the halls during lunchtime, hence #7 of the definition. I walked in after lunch recess today to find a 4th grader "guarding" my jar.
Him: "Someone stole all your dollars! I put a penny in there and noticed they were gone!" he announced. "I think Mrs. Ellsworth stole them!"
Me: "I don't think Mrs. Ellsworth has any desire to steal our dollars."
Him: "No, I mean the kids!"
One of my students: "I think it was someone in Mr. Gowan's class. His jar is completely full!" I looked and it was.
Me: "That doesn't mean they stole it. I think it's very sad that kids would take the money. That means someone won't have any presents on Christmas." Well, that or they wanted that wonderful "fourteen carrot gold" trophy so badly they put it in their own jar.
Nope, the money never showed up. I don't know what they are going to do about the missing $7. Better call C.S.I. I did find some devious behavior myself, though. I had given some students half dollars to go bombing, and I rescued a stray coin from one of their pockets. How nice of her to think she was one of those less fortunate.
-------
In the spirit of the penny war, I just had to share this copyrighted post I stole from my good friend Heidi's blog, whose school was also in the middle of a penny war this week. Mike and I thought it was so funny we almost "lost it" right then and there!***
Yesterday, as soon as my sweet B. got to school, she pulled a nickel out of her pocket and put it in her little hand to show me.
B: I’m going to go take a dump on Mrs. Banks’ class!
Me: No. No, no, no. You’re going to go “bomb” them.
B: Oh yeah.
Then she went to hang up her coat and backpack. Meanwhile, two of Cassity’s (Mrs. Banks) boys came in and dropped some money in our jar.
B: Oh no!!! They just took a dump on us!
Me: No, B. No no! It’s “bomb!” “Take a dump” is something else. [trying so hard not to laugh that my eyes are watering]
B: Ok.
She finishes doing her lunch count and getting out her homework.
B: Bye Miss V! I’m going to go take a dump on them!
Me: Ok, bye. Good luck. Don’t run in the halls.
***They wanted to outlaw the word bomb because of its current social connotation. I prefer "bomb" over "take a dump" any day!
2 comments:
I'm glad B. made you smile! I'm glad penny wars are over for you. We make the student council do most of the work. Would that work at your school?
so they did it again even though they got in trouble for it last year? good! it was a great way to raise money, even though it was incredibly chaotic and distracting. i can't believe someone stole the bills from your jar though! that's so bad. but "taking a dump" might be worse. LOL.
Post a Comment