Ideas for using

BENNY'S PENNIES

in the classroom

Benny McBride had five new pennies. "What should I buy?" he asked. Everyone in his family had different ideas on the best way to spend the money. Benny managed to get something for everyone, including himself.

BENNY'S PENNIES is a rhyming title. There are also short rhymes throughout the story. Can your students find them?

Pat is a good rhyming name. How many rhymes for Pat can your students give? Do any of your students have rhyming names?

Kelly/smelly/jelly/belly, Dan/ran/tan/man/fan and

Mike/like/trike/bike/hike are some good ones.

This activity requires some advance preparation. You will need to have tissue paper roses, small chocolate chip cookies, newspaper and directions for making paper hats, dog biscuits, and goldfish crackers. Display the items on a tabletop "store." Prepare a poster titled "How We Spent Our Pennies" with five columns labeled with the five items in the store.

After reading and discussing the book, give each child three pennies and three pieces of blank paper. Direct them to print their names on the pieces of paper. Allow them to shop at the store. Unlike Benny, they will have to make choices and choose only three items. When they have made their selections, they tape their names in the proper columns on the poster. The result is a bar graph of the class's choices and a bunch of happy kids! This is a great activity for integrating Math and reading.

BENNY'S PENNIES is illustrated in cut and torn paper by Bob Barner. Bob made parts of the illustrations look three dimensional by gluing folded pieces of stiff paper behind certain characters to make them stand away from the background. You can use either or both of these techniques in your classroom.

Before reading the book, ask your students to pay careful attention to the illustrations. Can they figure out how the artist made them? Introduce the idea of collage - an artistic work made of various materials glued on a surface. After reading and discussing the book, provide a variety of different colored paper for your students to work with. Allow them to create their own collages with or without three-dimensional effects.

BENNY'S PENNIES is dedicated to the author's son, Benjamin. Find the dedication page and explain that this is a way for the author and illustrator to "give" the book to someone special. Can your students guess which dedication is the author's and which is the illustrator's? Their initials after the dedication indicate which is which. Do your students know their initials?

Here is a game to play. With your students seated, say "If these are your initials, stand up and take a bow." Then call out the initials of a student. Others should try to figure out whose initials have been called and turn to face that person.

Benny is a nickname for Benjamin. Ask your students to give examples of given names and nicknames.

Benny gave the things he bought to the members of his family. What did Benny have in the end? Here's a hint - you hold it in your heart, not in your hand. Can your students think of times in their lives when they were generous like Benjamin? How did that make them feel? Ask them to share some of these experiences.