Elementary Schools

Elementary School Penny Roundup Program

Good Cents for Oakland’s 10-week Penny Roundup Program gives elementary school students the chance to get involved in helping their local community. Our program inspires kids, because adults step aside and allow them to make all the major decisions in the program. Students begin the program by deciding how to help people- through addressing the issue of food, shelter, safety, health or education. Then, student leaders select two issues from the winning category and inform the student body about those issues. All students cast a vote to decide which of the two issues the school will address. The student leaders meet with non-profit organizations and vote on the non-profit that will receive 100% of the proceeds of the school’s Penny Roundup. An armored truck picks up the coin, and the program closes with an assembly where children celebrate their success, honor student leaders and present a check for 100% of their Penny Roundup proceeds to the non-profit they’ve chosen to help. (Non-profit grantees must be working in the City of Oakland to qualify for a grant.)

We make academics fun
We provide teachers with fun, engaging enrichment activities that can be used throughout the program to reinforce academic skills in social studies, language arts, math, financial literacy and civics. Social studies activities include reading and learning about our Community Helpers. Language arts activities include debating issues, creating posters and writing letters to others about the Penny Roundup. Math activities include graphing votes, weighing coins as they fill coin bags. They practice financial literacy as they sort coins and civics as they exercise their right to vote.

The “3Bs” – Be Aware, Be Informed and Be Involved.

Be Aware, Be Informed…
We think that once kids are aware of issues affecting the community, they’ll be inspired to take action. Our *Issues Chart* presents 14 different issues facing people in Oakland. We provide children with age-appropriate information about issues, because we hope to help them become better advocates when they talk to others about the issue they’ve chosen to support. That’s why we created Issues Pages, one page summaries for each of the issues on our Issues Chart. They include a description of the issue, why it’s important and real ways kids can help. Issues Pages are available in two versions: Level A for beginning and Level B for advanced readers. We also created illustrated Issues Stories to help our younger, K-1 students better understand the issues.

Issues Chart
List of Issues
Sample Issues Page

...and Be Involved – the importance of role models, voting and advocacy

Community Helpers
To help motivate kids, we provide them with information about inspiring role models. Our Community Helpers biographies are one page profiles of local people who are helping their community here in Oakland. Our profiles include pictures, a short summary of the individual’s contribution to the community, glossary words and useful web-links. The Community Helpers profiles are available in two reading levels for beginning and advanced readers.

A list of our Community Helpers
Sample Profile Level A
Sample Profile Level B

Voting
Once children are aware and informed about the issues that face Oakland, we want them to take action and get involved. One of the most important ways to take action in our country is to vote, yet so many eligible voters don’t do so. We want kids to get in the habit of voting and valuing the right to do so. Every Good Cents for Oakland Penny Roundup gives all students two different opportunities to vote. Students participating in our leadership group have more opportunities to vote as they choose the two issues the school will address and the school’s non-profit grantee.

Becoming Advocates
Throughout the program, students talk to each other and hold discussions in their classrooms about the issues they’ve chosen to address. They make posters and presentations advocating for their issue. Then, we ask them to take those skills and the information they’ve learned to talk to others outside their school about their Penny Roundup. Children can also use our Neighborhood Letter template or write their own letters to relatives, friends, neighbors and local businesses.

Leadership
We give students of all ages the chance to lead. Students in older grades can apply for a position on the Student Roundtable. The Student Roundtable is responsible for selecting two issues to educate the school about from the winning category, Food, Shelter, Safety, Education or Health. Younger students can apply for a position on the Penny Roundup Team, which is responsible for sorting, weighing and bagging all the coin collected by the school during the Penny Roundup and preparing it for the armored car pickup.

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