It's almost Christmas!! I'm so excited about all of the fun things we get to do and see this time of year- Santa, special shows, shopping for presents, baking cookies, etc. And this year, we started a new tradition of giving.
It all started with two presents from Christmas last year: The book Three Cups and this bank- it's called a Moonjar. It has three parts to hold money- one for save, one for spend and one for share.
Three Cups is about a boy and how he learns about money with his three cups. Once we got these banks, my mom and dad started to give us allowance every week. We have chores to do each week, like clear our plates, unpack our backpacks, clean up toys and water the garden- and at the end of the week we get four quarters. We put one quarter in each part of the bank, and the fourth quarter we get to choose which part gets an extra.
So, last weekend, we all took out our Share banks and counted up all the money.
 |
| Share Bank |
 |
| Here is my pile of money |
 |
| Here is my money in $1 stacks |
 |
| Done counting, now what? |
 |
| My brother is working on his money stacks too! |
|
|
|
|
My sister only had $1.08, we're not sure what happened to all of her money!
 |
| The final tally |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After counting up all of our money, my mom showed us all of the things we could choose to donate our money to. There were lots of great choices- it was really hard to make a decision!
My mom suggested that we take all of our pennies and donate them to our penny harvest at Ezra Baker (that's my school). We all thought that made sense, so we gathered up all the pennies and put them in my bag.
 |
| Penny Harvest Bag |
With the rest of our money, we each chose which place to donate to. My sister Addy decided to donate her money (and dad's extra change) to the
Rhode Island Zoo to buy a toy for the monkeys. Liam decided to split his money and give to two groups- the
Chatham Shark Center and the
Animal Rescue League. The Shark Center is in Chatham and they have a little museum that teaches people about sharks and other marine animals. The Animal Rescue League takes care of dogs and cats that don't have families. I chose to give all my money to Wild Care- which takes care of wild animals on Cape Cod that are hurt.
So this weekend we got to go deliver our donations. First, we went to the Animal Rescue League. We brought them some old towels and sheets that they need for the animals. We also got them some cat toys, a dog bone and some animal treats. They were really excited that we came! We got to meet some of their animals- dogs, cats, bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, and even birds!
 |
| Animal Rescue League |
Our next stop was Wild Care Cape Cod. We brought them our donation and also some things from their "wish list"- like tissues, dish soap, and cotton balls. We got to see some squirrels that were almost ready to be released. There were four of them, and they were all sisters.
 |
| Wild Care |
 |
| This is their Wish List tree |
 |
| The squirrels playing |
Our last stop was the Chatham Shark Center. It was our first time to the
museum, so we got to check out their exhibits and color some pictures.
 |
| Here we are in the shark cage! | | | | | |
|
|
We were really proud of ourselves for sharing what we earned. Now our Share bank is empty and we need to start saving for next year!
