One Hundred Days of School, Oh My!

The Hundredth Day of School has come and gone and I forgot to post about it!  Cut me a little slack, it was only a week ago.

My kiddos started a countdown once we got to the 80s.  Everyday during calendar someone would excitedly announce, "We are almost to 100!!"  The day finally came, so a celebration was in order.

If you have a career that does not involve children, you may not understand the relevance of the 100th day.  My husband is one such individual.  When I told him about our celebration he asked, "Why do you celebrate being in school for 100 days?"  At that point I realized, I didn't have a good answer for him.  There really is nothing different that occurs on the 100th day.  Your students don't magically mature or turn into little angels.  I guess it is a day to celebrate the fact that the teachers and students have survived 100 days of school together and are still in one piece and relatively sane.  Now, if a kid asks me that same question, I tell them, "We are celebrating because you are 100 days smarter!"

Here are a few of the things we did to celebrate/work with the number 100.

We made 100 Day crowns!  This project had several aspects.  First I gave them a 100 that was divided into ten sections.  They had to draw ten dots in each section, thus making 100 dots.  Next, they picked up 10 different colored strips of paper (previously cut my me and laid out nicely in piles on the table for quick and easy pickup).  They drew ten of an object on each strip.  Each colored strip had to have a different design.  Once again, ten strips+ten pictures on each=100 (So I guess technically once we put it all together it was a 200 crown, but they didn't notice.)

They glued the 100 to a strip of paper and then added their ten colorful strips as well.  I stapled all the strips together at the top to make the finished product.  They loved making them and wearing them, and they got lots of practice counting in the process!  The crowns made them look pretty silly, especially considering it was also Pajama Day!  It was a very colorful day!

For phonics, we worked on building words from the letters in "one hundred".  I found this great freebie from Primary Reading Party.

They cut the letters out and recorded the words they came up with.  Some of them needed a little help, so I suggested words and they spelled them.

If you can get your hands on the book, Centipede's 100 Shoes, then you should try out this activity.

The kiddos practice counting by 1s and 2s, and they review patterns as well.  Reading, math, and science activities all rolled into one (suggestions can be found at the link above).

For writing, I gave each student a $100 bill.  An enlarged paper version of course!  They colored them green.

I stapled a blank paper to it to create a book, but if you want to save trees, I have had them write on the back before and it works just as well.  They wrote about what they would do if I gave them a real $100 bill.  Some of their ideas were very sweet, others were amusing :)

"If I had a 100 dollar bill I would give it to a poor person."

"If I had a dollar bill I would keep it forever because it is so special to me."

"I would buy a toy like a Nerf gun because I could do target practice."

I had also planned to make super cute cupcakes with my kiddos, but we ran out of time :(  I even typed up the recipe sheet and cut the paper strips.  This great idea came from Kinder Cakes.

Hey, now I have a fun activity already prepped for next year!  I am way ahead of the game!  If you want to go ahead and prep for your 100th Day, snag some of these ideas!  Leave me a comment if you want the 100 Day Cupcake Recipe sheet!

On another note, I am so proud of my kiddos!  They have been raising money all month for Pennies for Patients (for Leukemia).  With only 10 students in my class, they raised a total of $190!