Students Are on a Centimental Journey

Kay Rich has found a million reasons to collect pennies, a project that amounts to far more than small change.

The math teacher and the students of Leona Cox Elementary School have set out to collect 1 million pennies, a hands-on math lesson that is teaching students as much about numbers as it does about responsibility.

“I’m trying to create for my students . . . a vivid memory of just what a million would look like,” she said.

In their zeal to collect $10,000 worth of pennies, the students have garnered communitywide support for the assignment that eventually will help buy school computers.

The Glendale Galleria is donating all the pennies tossed into its fountains during the holiday season. Coast Federal Bank is lending an old vault for penny storage. Local businesses have put collection cans on their counters.

“A million is a long way to go,” said Dave Callister, the owner of Hogi Yogi, a sandwich and frozen yogurt shop in Canyon Country that has already collected two coffee cans full of pennies.

People have dropped by the school with cans and cigar boxes filled with pennies. Children have collected the coins from neighbors. Ashley Hudson, 9, asked Santa to put pennies in her stocking.

The adventure began last summer when Rich was preparing for the opening of school. Her textbook suggested collecting a million bottle caps, old pieces of mail or paper clips.

But what would she end up doing with 1 million paper clips?

Finally she decided to collect that much-maligned nuisance of a coin.

She persuaded Principal Jeannie Kingsford, other teachers, parents and finally the community to help. Teachers kicked off the campaign at a school assembly by performing a soft-shoe step while singing “Pennies From Heaven.”

As of a recent count, the students had collected and tallied 270,000 pennies, putting them just slightly behind schedule to attain their goal.

To reach it, they must come up with about 5,555 pennies for each of the 180 days in the school year.

Along the way, the students are learning math concepts. They figured out that 5,000 pennies weighs 31.5 pounds, according to the bathroom scale prominently positioned in the front of the classroom.

They have renewed interest in adding, multiplying and dividing their pennies, using bigger and bigger numbers every week.

Small, white cotton sacks stamped “$50” line a table beside the scale. A red wagon is used to haul the money around when it needs to be moved.

Amy Fusco found a penny from Japan. Charlie Simons counted past 1,000 and Kyra Letzo counted by threes. And Kelly Hallquist, surrounded by mounds of money, could only imagine what it must be like to be rich.

“I found a penny from 1960,” said Margaret Tankersly. “I said, ‘Oh my God! This is older than me. Way older.’ ”

Cheryl Avalos, the mathematics consultant for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said that while penny accounting improves math skills, there’s more to be learned.

“Kids don’t have a clear idea of large numbers,” Avalos said. “Ultimately what we’re trying to do is make [students] useful and knowledgeable citizens--like knowing how much we are spending on the national debt and how much we are spending on national defense.”

Indeed, De Borah Howton, 9, is learning about the value of money one cent at a time.

“I thought pennies were kind of boring because you couldn’t buy anything with them,” she said. “After this, I’m going to start saving them.”

Rich plans to dump the coins on the floor of the school’s multipurpose room so everyone can stand in a penny mountain for pictures.

She’s confident they will reach the million mark, especially if the community helps. But because donations are erratic, she cannot predict when that might be.

Rich is still working out the details, such as how she will move three tons of pennies from the vault to the multipurpose room for those pictures. Then there’s the question of how much space a million pennies will take up:

If the ceiling of the multipurpose room is 12 feet tall, and the room is 100 feet long by 50 feet wide, how many pennies can be stored?

This is one word problem that hasn’t been solved yet.