Making Sense Out of Cents

 As part of a Kindergarten math lesson at Cherry Avenue, Mrs. Kate Enea was addressing the concept of addition. She encouraged her students to start a collection of items as a way of demonstrating that the more items you add, the bigger the collection grows.

 “The student decided to collect pennies—and only pennies—to see if they could reach the amount of 1,000 pennies.” Mrs. Enea explained. “Everyone began bringing in their pennies, and we selected one day to count them.” Instead of counting by 1s, Ms. Enea showed the students an easier way; to count the pennies by 10s, which made adding them so much simpler. On first count, the students had collected a total of 740 pennies— still short of their goal. Day after day, the Kindergarten students added to their collection, until finally, they reached the total of 1,000 pennies.

 All the students were excited about collecting so many pennies, but Mrs. Enea’s suggestion, that they donate their collection to a worthy cause—the Sayville Food Pantry, made real sense to the students. “Who knew that counting by 10s and learning about collecting,” added Mrs. Enea, “could be so rewarding!”