Living in the Boston area, St. Patrick's Day is a pretty big deal, so we always like to do a little something special to celebrate the day. An all-time favorite of ours since the preschool years (keep in mind that Pumpkin is now ten!) has been to hand out lucky pennies! This is honestly the simplest classroom handout you will ever do, but the kids get so excited that you would think you just handed them a nugget of gold.
The first step is to go to the bank and get some shiny new pennies. Over the years, my luck with the banks in my area have been mixed. Some years it's no problem at all, other years I have been told that they do not have any new pennies. No new pennies?!?!! How is this possible? I'm not sure, but if this happens to you as well, you can take the alternate route of cleaning some pennies yourself (go here for penny cleaning formula). If you clean them yourself, they will not be as shiny as if they were new, but the kids do not notice at all, so not to worry.
Once you have the pennies, you have already completed the most time-consuming part of this project! Simply download the design template here, print on the cardstock of your choice and cut as indicated. (Hint: the cards are 3X3 squares) Then attach the pennies to the cards using glue or double-sided tape and you're done! We usually put the cards in small glassine or cellophane envelopes to hand them out, but only because I tend to have those types of supplies on hand. The cards are perfectly fine to hand out as is.
Everyone can use a little extra luck now and again, so have fun with this quick and easy project and maybe as you're spreading some cheer, you'll find yourself a bit o' gold at the end of the rainbow this St. Patrick's Day.
Oh, and no shenanigans! OK, maybe a little...
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