Pennies For Your Thoughts

If someone caught you daydreaming and a million miles away, you might have heard them asking you, “A penny for your thoughts.”

This is a nice writing prompt for students, especially on President’s Day, and makes a cute class book.

Brainstorm with your students of what they could think about. I think… the cafeteria should serve… I think that someday I would like to be a...  I think tomorrow I will… etc.

Run off my template and have students fill in the conversation cloud and then glue their school photo next to it as if they are “thinking”.

 Collate the pages and make a class book.  Share it with the class by having students read their page when you come to it.

You can reward them with a shiny penny after they have shared their thoughts.

A similar activity is “Thoughts On A Penny.” So that students become familiar with what is on a penny, explain to them the data on the coin.

Run off the penny template on brown construction paper and tell students they will cut it out and fill in some informational thoughts.

Instead of In God We Trust as the motto on their coin, have them come up with their own personal motto, or simply write down one of their favorite quotes.

To help them with this, read a dozen or so very short ones from a list of favorite quotations and have them choose one.

Discuss where and when coins are minted and show them where that information appears on the coin.

In lieu of that, have them write down the city where they were born, and the year.

Around the bottom, students complete the sentence: I’m cent-sational because…

Students glue their penny to the kid character, add some facial features and hair; color and cut it out.

These make a nice bulletin board or hallway display.

Click on the link to view/download A Penny For Your Thoughts ideas

Whatever your plans for President’s Day I hope they are simply cent-sational!

Scroll down for some ABC-123 President's Day cards, perfect for a center activity or game for President's Day!