Pennies for Presents

Materials Needed:
Small plastic containers (e.g. baby food or leftover containers)
One large container (e.g. coffee can)
Wrapping paper
Scissors
Glue

What to Do:
Cut wrapping paper into strips and shapes.
Provide each child with a clean small plastic container, glue, and wrapping paper. Have children glue the wrapping paper to the container.
Decorate the large container with wrapping paper to use as a class container to collect all of the coins.
After glue has dried cut a slit wide enough for coins to slide through in the containers.
Encourage children to search their homes for loose pennies (with their parents permission) and place them in their containers.

Instruct the children bring the pennies to school, count them, and then place them into the class container.
Explain to the children that the pennies will be used to buy a gift for a child in need. When you are finished collecting pennies, the teacher should use the money to buy a gift and bring it back to school to show the class what their pennies were used to buy.  

 Donate the gift to someone in need in your community.