MEASURING A MILE: FIRST-GRADERS AT MAY GREENE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HOPE TO COLLECT 84,480 PENNIES

Mary Ann Lewis held the microphone for first-grader Nick Busby while he talked about Lincoln in front of a May Greene Elementary School assembly.

Chasity Johnson, a first-grader in Theresa Burke's class, waits with her costume on for the assembly to kick off the mile of pennies program. It takes 84,000 pennies to make a mile.

Amia Warren brought 172 pennies to school last week, her contribution to a class project. First-graders at May Greene Elementary School hope to collect a mile of pennies.

The project isn't a fund-raiser. It's math class. Students will count, sort, chart, estimate and measure a mile of pennies.

To make a mile, the youngsters need to round up 84,480 pennies. Simple subtraction shows that after Amia's contribution, the youngsters still need 84,308 more.

So last week about 40 6- and 7-year-olds put on paper stovepipe hats and beards and told the rest of the May Greene students about Abraham Lincoln and the penny he made famous and asked for help in collecting pennies.

After the assembly, first-grader Dennis Moore explained the project: "Sometimes we do math. Now we're doing it in pennies."

Brandy Lynn More knew that a guy named Victor D. Brenner designed the penny.

"It will be hard, hard to get them all," Brandy said. "But people can give us quarters and nickels and dimes and we will turn the cents into pennies."

Brandy estimated that a mile of pennies would "fill up this whole school."

Her teacher, Mary Ann Lewis, estimates that a mile of pennies, laid end to end, would circle the gym floor eight times.

First grade typically includes the study of money and February brings an annual lesson about Abraham Lincoln. The penny project seemed a natural to May Greene first-grade teachers Mary Ann Lewis and Theresa Burke.

"This is a hands-on way to look at learning," Lewis said. "Also, it gets everybody involved as a whole school. There is no way just the first-graders could to it."

In fact, some of the math skills are a little advanced for first-graders. So sixth-graders have volunteered to help.

On Friday afternoons, until the goal is met, first- and sixth-graders will team up to count and graph the pennies collected.

"The students will also learn about cooperation, getting along and working together," Lewis said. "The sixth-graders will also have some responsibility in this project."

No deadline has been set, but teachers hope to collect a mile of pennies before the end of the school year. First-graders Brandy and Dennis expressed a lot more confidence. "I think we have them all by April," Brandy said. "Yes, April," added Dennis.

People who would like to donate pennies toward the project may bring them to the school at 100 Ranney or call 335-5797 for more information.

When all 84,480 pennies are collected, the youngsters will have gathered more than $840. The money will be donated to the American Heart Association. "May Greene is `The School with a Heart,'" Lewis said.