The Penny Drill

One of the activities I use with teens in our Teen Respect Seminar is the Penny Drill below. The implementation procedure includes the following.

1- Invite the students to form a circle for the activity.

2- Pass out one penny to each participant.

3- Explain that you are going to read a story of the Wright family and that every time you say the word Wright you want the students to pass their penny to the right. Every time you read the word left you pass your penny to the left.

4- The object of the game is to end up with only one penny in your hand when you finish each paragraph.

5- Every time you read a new paragraph, read it faster then the previously read paragraph.

6- At the end of the paragraph invite students who only have one penny in their hand to hold it in the air and then lower their hand with a great big “Yes!”.

One day, the Wright family decided to take a vacation.

The first thing they had to decide was who would be left at home since there was not enough room in the Wright family car for all of them. Mr. Wright decided that Aunt Linda Wright would be the one left at home. Of course, this made Aunt Linda Wright so mad that she left the house immediately yelling, “It will be a right cold day before I return.”

The Wright family now bundled up the children, Tommy Wright, Susan Wright, Timmy Wright and Shelly Wright and got in the car and left. Unfortunately, as they turned out of the driveway, someone had left a trash can in the street so they had to turn right around and stop the car.

Tommy Wright got back in the car to continue their right fine vacation. When they arrived at the gas station, Father Wright put gas in the car and then discovered that he had left his wallet at home. So Timmy Wright ran home to get the money that was left behind. After Timmy had left, Susan Wright started to feel sick. She left the car saying that she had to throw up. This, of course, got Mother Wright’s attention and she left the car too.

With all of this going on, Father Wright decided that this was not the right time to take a vacation so he gathered up all of the family and left the gas station as quickly as he could. When he arrived home, he turned left into the driveway and said, “I wish the Wright family had never left the house today.”

– Gene Bedley