The “Penny War” began at Hawk School when students began their unit of study on money. Third grade teacher Stacey Lindes decided to combine a lesson about saving money with another lesson about collecting money for charity to have an authentic reason to work with real coins and to teach students how they can make a difference.
The class discussed various charities and ways to research charities using COWS (computers on wheels). In the “Penny War,” two or more groups of students competed to collect the most pennies, and over the past month, students raised more than $80 for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, ASPCA, Dog Town, Red Cross, and Pennies for Puppies.