Penny Wars may not be as brutal the name would suggest, but Wareham Middle School teacher and Honors Society advisor Jessica Andrews thinks they are an effective fundraising method for the school.

“I think [the children] like the competition … they feel good about giving, too,” Andrews said. “And if the teachers get into it, the kids really get into it. The teachers don’t like to lose, either.”

A “penny war” is a fundraiser in which children bring in pennies to add to their own homeroom’s jars, and silver dollars and other pieces of silver change to sabotage other homerooms’ penny jars, Andrews said. The objective is to only have pennies in the jar, and bring other homerooms down to zero, or less, by putting silver change into their penny jars.

A piece of change, regardless of whether it is a penny or something else, is worth in points the number of cents it represents. For instance, a penny is worth one point; a dollar is worth 100 points. Pennies are the only way to get positive points, while silver change counts negatively against the total.

Andrews said this year’s war, which raised money for Wareham’s Relay For Life in late June, was especially fraught with competition. She said one child even recruited his mother to help him obtain pennies for his own homeroom, and silver change for opposing homerooms.

“He was able to go around the school, and sabotage other homerooms with silver dollars he had, and put the pennies into his own jar,” Andrews said.

But despite the children’s desire to outdo each other, Andrews said she believes the school did not manage to raise as much money this year as it did last year. She said this is because fewer of the older children were engaged in the competition this year.

“The fifth and sixth grades were probably the biggest contributors,” Andrews said. “They are younger, and more energetic about it."

Andrews estimated the school raised a total of $600, compared to last year’s $1,000. She said this was a rough estimate, based on point totals.

“Honors Society students stay after school, and count the amount of money raised for points,” Andrews said. “They don’t count for a total ... but we definitely have fewer jars [of pennies] than in the past.”

This year, teacher Karen Landry’s fifth grade homeroom won first place, in terms of the number of points, but teacher Kristen Kelley’s fifth grade homeroom raised the most money, Andrews said.

“They had the most physical money, not just pennies,” Andrews said. “They had almost $50 in their jar.”

Andrews said Landry’s homeroom, which had a total of 1,262 points -- $12.62 -- will get a pizza party.