Global Voices Information Sheet
Penny Lane
Students at Eston Composite School in Saskatchewan pose with the pennies they have collected for We Create Change.
Background Info
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The Canadian Mint’s official name for the penny is the “one-cent piece”. The name “penny” comes from British
currency, but Canadians kept the name unofficially for the one-cent coin when we started making our own money.
The first Canadian penny was made and issued in 1858.
Early pennies were made of copper and were one inch wide so they could serve as a measuring tool as well as
currency. By 1920, the price of copper was so high, to conserve penny was made smaller.
Since 2000, copper is no longer a main component of pennies— they are made of steel, with a copper plating
surface for unity.
In order to meet the demand for pennies, the Canadian Mint makes anywhere from 400 million to more than one
billion pennies every year. There may be as many as 20 billion pennies still in circulation.
It would take 4.5 million pennies to fill an Olympic size swimming pool; 384,403,000,000 pennies to make a penny
tower long enough to reach the moon; and 7,970,034,765,625,000,000 (or 7.97 quintillion) pennies to cover the
earth.
In the federal budget in April 2012, the Canadian government announced that the Canadian Mint would no longer
make the penny because it is too expensive. One penny costs 1.8 cents to make — almost twice what the penny
is worth.
Without the penny, stores will now round out the cost of goods if you pay with cash. For example, if something
costs $1.01, the store will charge you an even one dollar. If it costs $1.04, the store will round up to $1.05. If you
choose to pay with debit or credit though, you will still be paying, to the penny.
Key terms
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Ubiquitous — common, appearing or found everywhere.
Currency — the money a country uses. For example Canada’s currency is Canadian dollars; Europe’s currency is
the Euro.
Royal Canadian Mint — The Canadian Crown Corporation responsible for producing and managing Canada’s
circulation coins. The Bank of Canada produces Canada’s bank notes or printed money.
Global Voices Elementary Resources
Note to Educators:
The following activities are designed to stimulate a current events discussion. Generative in nature,
these questions can be a launching point for additional assignments or research projects.
Teachers are encouraged to adapt these activities to meet the contextual needs of their classroom.
In some cases, reading the article with students may be appropriate, coupled with reviewing the
information sheet to further explore the concepts and contexts being discussed. From here,
teachers can select from the questions provided below. Activities are structured to introduce
students to the issues, then allow them to explore and apply their learnings. Extension and
conclusion activities are included to challenge students and finally, encourage them to reflect on the
issues at hand.
Since these activities are designed as discussions rather than formal lessons, assessment
strategies are not included.
Themes and Course Connections
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Themes: volunteering, socially conscious living
Course Connections: Language, Math, Social Studies, History
Materials
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Global Voices column
Paper and writing utensils
Specific Expectations and Learning Goals
Students will:
 Develop and express responses to issues and problems.
 Reassess their responses to issues on the basis of new information.
 Participate in active group work and class discussions.
 Communicate effectively in written and spoken language or other forms of expression.
 Demonstrate the ability to think critically.
 Develop, express, and defend a position on an issue and explain how to put the ideas into action.
Knowledge and Understanding
1. Guided Reading: The Global Voices Column (estimated time: 20 minutes)
a. Have students sit in a circle and distribute one copy of the Global Voices column to each
student.
b. Pre-reading steps:
i. Make predictions: ask students to read the title of the column. After doing so, ask
them to make predictions as to what the column is going to be about.
ii. Introduce vocabulary from the column.
iii. Assess prior knowledge: ask students to discuss what they already know about
these topics.
c. Reading steps:
i. Go around the circle and have each student read a section of the column to the
class, so that everyone gets a turn to read.
ii. As students are reading, offer guidance and coaching by providing prompts,
asking questions, and encouraging attempts at reading strategy application.
d. Post reading steps:
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i. Encourage students to provide a summary of the column in order to ensure they
have understood the series of events.
ii. Ask questions about the text to judge comprehension
2. Discussing the Global Voices Column (estimated time: 10 minutes)
a. Ask students the following suggested questions about the column, encourage them to
use evidence from the Global Voices column to support their answers:
i. What is the message in this column?
ii. What perspectives are presented in this column? Which ones are left out?
iii. What problem is presented in this column?
3. Media Literacy (estimated time:15 minutes)
a. On a piece of paper ask each student to write the title of the column at the top of the
page. Underneath the heading, have them create a chart with two columns across and
five rows down.
b. In the first column, have them write the following questions:
i. What is the title of this column?
ii. Who is the author?
iii. What is the purpose of the column?
iv. What statistics or facts are listed in the column?
v. Are there biases or obvious points of view?
c. Have the students revisit the Global Voices column and fill in the chart answering the
above questions.
d. Discuss the students’ charts as a class. Address the reasons why it is important to
understand the source and potential bias of a website or print resource offering news
information. Explain that just because a source has a bias doesn’t mean it has no value.
One of the traditional purposes of publications is to express opinions and attempt to
convince readers of their validity. Explain that this is why it’s important for each of them to
form their own opinion while reading publications instead of agreeing with everything.
Thinking
1. Ode to the penny (estimated time: 10 minutes)
a. The column describes the coming extinction of the Canadian penny. Ask your students
the following questions to engage them in penny centered conversation.
i. What is an ode?
ii. Is this article an ode?
iii. What does ubiquitous mean?
iv. What does the Canadian Mint do?
v. Who is Jim Flaherty?
vi. What do you do with your pennies?
vii. Have you donated any pennies to charity as Flaherty suggested?
Communication & Application
1. A penny for your thoughts (estimated time for two activities: 75 minutes)
a. To commemorate the end of the penny, select a few activities from the following list to
help your students communicate and apply what they learned in the Global Voices
column.
i. Calculate it: Use penny measurements to compare the height, width and weight
with the measurements of other items to find out how many pennies it would take
to match them. Then calculate the worth of the item in pennies. For example,
NASA declares a person is an astronaut when they break the 80 km distant mark
th
from the earth’s surface. So when 55,172,414 are stacked flat, the 55,172,414
penny may be considered a penny astronaut. Find out how many pennies it takes
to reach Bonavista from Vancouver Island, learn the mass of a moose or the
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ii.
iii.
iv.
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volume of Lake Louise. Use the following penny measurements as a base for the
calculations
1. Mass: 2.35 g
2. Diameter: 19.05 mm
3. Thickness: 1.45 mm
Compose a true “Ode to the Penny” or write a haiku, limerick or name poem.
Compile a history of the penny. Include interesting facts like the following: did you
know the official term for the penny is “one-cent piece” and that “penny” once
referred to a two cent coin?
Write a journal entry. Use the following as suggested topics:
1. What does the penny mean to you?
2. Why the penny will be missed.
3. Why it’s time to lose the penny.
4. Support musician Dave Gunning statement—“The penny is part of the
Canadian story.”
Research different penny drives currently taking place or select a charity or
cause to support. Then see how many pennies your class can collect in a day, a
week or a month.
Additional Resources
In addition to the above lesson plans, share these resources with your students
Free The Children www.freethechildren.com
Weday.com www.weday.com
We Create Change campaign page www.freethechildren.com/wecreatechange
Royal Canadian Mint on phasing out the penny www.mint.ca/store/mint/learn/phasing-out-the-penny6900002#.UQGSPR3Ae8A
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