A Penny for a Big Piggy

When you save pennies, the money can add up fast. So you need a piggy bank to hold them. The biggest piggy bank ever built stood 26 feet long, 18 feet tall, and 18 feet wide! Inside it had 2 floors so kids could climb around. This round pig could have held about 4,400 cubic feet of pennies. Imagine a cube 1 foot wide in each direction, each of which can hold almost 50,000 pennies…and now imagine more than 4,000 cubes. How much money is that — and can anyone carry it?

Wee ones: Find a penny and another coin, like a dime, nickel or quarter. What is the same about the two coins? What is different?

Little kids: If you have 6 pennies, what numbers do you say to count them?  Bonus: A dime is worth 10 pennies. If you start with 6 pennies, how many more do you need to make 10?

Big kids: A cubic foot of pennies weighs 307 pounds! How much more than you does that weigh?  Bonus: How much money is 200 million pennies in dollars? (Reminder if needed: A dollar equals 100 pennies.)

Answers:
Wee ones: The coins are all circles. They are different sizes, though, and the other coins are silver in color, not copper.

Little kids: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.  Bonus: 4 more pennies.

Big kids: Different for everyone…subtract your weight in pounds from 307.  Bonus: $2 million!

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