Broken Pencils

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Home : 2003 : August : 7

Broken Pencils
By Mary

Two years ago I worked as a TA in a 3rd grade class. We were on a broken pencil rampage! It was making me nuts. So, I brought in 27 pencils from home. All brand new, sharpened on an electric sharpener so they were all the
same size. I drew a red line about two inches from the bottom of the eraser. In that space I wrote their name and number.
I challenged them to a Two week Pencil Marathon.
The goal was to see who could keep the same pencil the whole time. They could sharpen it and do what ever they wanted with it, but after two weeks I wanted to see it. It had to have the red line visible in order

to have 'won'. Anyone who had it left was able to receive a prize. (small candy)
You would have been shocked to see how many students still had their's. In fact the next year in school, I had students hunting me down to show me that they still had it! It was kinda fun!