Make change in your community! Create a symbolic coin that showcases your pledge to make your town a better place to live.

• 1.

  Have you ever noticed anything about your community that you wished you could improve? Is there a section of your town that is littered and needs to be cleaned up? Have you seen a homeless person in need of food and shelter? Maybe within your school you’ve noticed students bullying or teasing each other?

• 2.

  What can you do to change these situations? How can you make your community a better place to live?

• 3.

  Create a large coin by carefully cutting a circle out of recycled cardboard and covering it with aluminum foil. Secure the foil in place with a piece of clear adhesive tape on the back of the coin.

• 4.

  Draw a self-portrait in the center of the coin using Crayola Slick Stix™. Slick Stix contain pigments that may stain clothing, fabrics and other household surfaces. Wear a smock to protect clothing and cover your work surface with newspaper.

• 5.

  Decorate the rest of your coin with symbols that represent your pledge to the community. You could draw food if you’re going to collect canned goods for a local food bank or a broom if you vow to help clean up the local parks!

• 6.

  Share your coin with the class. Have any of your classmates made the same pledge as you? Partner with these students and make a plan to put your pledges into action!

Standards

• LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
• SS: Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.
• SS: Identify roles as learned behavior patterns in group situations such as student, family member, peer play group member, or club member.
• SS: Locate, access, organize, and apply information about an issue of public concern from multiple points of view.
• VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas.
• VA: Select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of their ideas.

Adaptations

• In small groups, students investigate community issues. Each team will compose a proposal for dealing with a community improvement idea, including the current shortfalls and what they can do as a class or school to improve this issue. Each team will present their proposal to the class; all students can vote on a singular community issue that they will address.
• Students compose a letter to their school administration and local community officials informing them of the community issue they would like to address. Included in the letter is a detailed steps concerning how they would like to proceed. Once they have approval from the administration and local officials, students begin their project. A class blog can be made available for parents and students to comment periodically on progress.
• The class, or a small group of students, can organize a Penny Race. Students and staff can be encouraged to donate their extra coins to raise money for the class-selected cause.
• In collecting the coins, provide students with the opportunity to investigate pictures, symbols and phrases on coins. Students can be encouraged to research what these symbols and phrases represent. Should we modernize our country's coins? If so, students propose what changes they would make and why. An electronic presentation of proposals can be uploaded to a class computer for future viewing and discussion.