100th Day of School

Wow!  I can't believe we have already reached the 100th day of school!  I love my class and I knew they were going to enjoy all the things I had in store for them.  Monday was our 100th day.  I planned 3 centers for the morning:

1. 100th Day Crown

2. 100th Day Snack

3. 100th Day Necklace

1. 100th Day Crown
The Friday before,  I started gathering all of the materials at school to make their cute 100th Day crown.   I used sentence strips and 5 different colors of construction paper.  I cut the paper into one-inch strips.  Earlier in the week I printed off the "I am 100 days smarter!" headers.  I originally made those last year, so I was glad they were already on my computer - one less thing I had to make.  Since it was Friday, I was ready to get home, so I gathered everything up and packed it all, to be continued at home.   Here are a couple of pictures of the process.  This first one was taken at school.

So at home on Sunday afternoon, I finished the project.  I glued down the strips of construction paper about one inch apart, intentionally leaving about 4 to 6 inches on one end for sizing and stapling.  Once I had glued down one set of strips, I repeated the pattern so that there were 10 strips.  

Here is the set up at the center table with bingo daubers.

I put the rest of them on their desks and told them to pick them up and carry then to the table when it was their turn.  So you will see them on a few student desks in other pics, even though they are working on a different activity.

Here are three of my sweeties working on their awesome crowns.  I put out my bingo daubers for my kiddos to choose from.  With ten strips, they stamped 10 dots on each strip, making 100 dots. The sweetie in the white shirt in the picture got a little "dot-happy" and dotted the sentence strip portion too, before I could stop her.   Oh well, I couldn't bring myself to tell her she had way more than 100 dots.   LOL

When they finished, they took their crowns to their desk to dry.  That opened up the space for another group to come to the table.  To finish it off, I sized the sentence strip around each student's head, then stapled it together.  Lastly, I took hold of the end of each strip, laying the ends on top of one another.  Then I stapled all the ends together, making a crown.  They were so pumped to get to show off their new "I'm 100 Days Smarter" crowns  as we walked to the lunchroom!

I got the original idea for this crown from Pinterest.  I tried following the link to Mrs Morrow's Kindergarteners, but it was only available to invited members.   She used stickers,  but I like the bingo dauber dots, and my kids love anything to do with PAINT! 

2. 100th Day Snack
A week ahead of time, I sent out a letter to parents requesting a variety of snacks that we easily count to make our trail-mix style snack.   This list included the following:  bowls, Chex cereal, Cherioes cereal, gummy bears, raisins, marshmallows, Skittles, M&Ms, chocolate morsels, Goldfish, and red hots.  Ten snacks.

Friday evening,  before I left school, I assessed what students had brought.  I stopped by the store and picked up chocolate morsels (a student forgot to bring them) and a couple of extra bags of gummy bears.  Monday morning, even before the kids got to school, I began setting everything out, but this took a lot more time than I had remembered from last year.  So, if you think you want to do this too, have some engaging morning work out for them to do independently in case you need a few extra minutes to finish the set up.  I put out two sets of snacks.  One set for the left side of the table and one for the right side.  I set out hundred boards for my kiddos to use for counting their snack.  Ten frames or other sorting mats would work great too, but I just love using my hundred boards for counting on the 100th Day of School.  The idea... 10 rows of each of the 10 snacks makes 100 snacks.

In this picture, you can see another group of kids working at their desks.  They are working on the third center activity, the 100 Day Necklace.

Once their board was complete, together we slid their yummy snacks into a baggie and zipped it up for them to hold until morning recess.  Our recess is at 10:40, so I knew this activity had to be completed by then.  You may want to keep your snack or recess time in mind as you plan out your day.  They all thought it was funny that I made myself a snack bag as well.  YUM!

3. The 100th Day Necklace
In my parent letter, I also asked for a box of Fruit Loops.  I went to Hobby Lobby to find my Rexlace.  It only cost a couple of dollars.  I cut strips about 4 feet long.  That is more than you will need, but that length will give you enough to tie the knot.  To keep the front loops from falling off, I put a small paperclip on one end.

I had students use a hundred chart to layout their Fruit loops, so they could be more accurate, than if they were simply counting as they put the cereal on their string.  This worked GREAT!  First graders loose their place easily when counting if they are distracted, so using the hundred chart is a helpful tool for all sorts of counting activities.

When their hundred chart was full, they began threading their cereal onto their Rexlace.  I made these numbered tabs to indicate each group of 10 Fruit Loops.  (Aren't they cute?)  There were two sets to a page.  I printed them at home so I could have color (only a black and white printer at school), cut them out, punched a hole in the top and packed each set into a snack size baggie.

The next day, all I had to do was lay out a baggie on everyone's desk along with this "My 100th Day Necklace" sheet.  I wish I knew where I got this, but its at school and I'm typing this post at home.  I'll try to remember to look and come back to post the link. 

Here's what they looked like before I tied them off.  Rexlace is very slippery, so you'll need to tie a good and tight knot to keep the necklaces together, but mine worked great.  Using the numbered tabs really helped me quickly check to make sure the correct amount of cereal was on each student's necklace.  For example, when there are only 6 Fruit Loops between two numbered tabs, it is easy to spot the difference in length, compared to all the other length segments on the necklace.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

Both crown and necklace

This little jokester, thought he looked so funny peeking through the strips!   

These three activities and recess took up our morning.  

After lunch we read the book 100 Hungry Ants, which they absolutely love.   It is a perfect book for  the hundredth day of school for most any elementary class.  Click on the picture if you want to pick up a copy for yourself from Amazon.  

You can get your own classroom copy of this book by clicking on the link below.

Afterwards, we walked around the room using our clip boards, to write 100 words.  

We stacked 100 pennies.  

We painted 100 dots.  

They LOVE PAINTING!

EXTRA:  100th Day Puzzle

We put together this Hundred Day puzzle, and oh my goodness, this was one of their favorites!  They loved that they were making a puzzle that they could put back together later!  First, I had them glue it to a piece of construction paper.  I suggest glue sticks, but a generous amount.  Liquid glue makes paper buckle.  The construction paper made it more sturdy and gave them a colorful back.  You could also print them on card stock.  Next, they carefully cut out each piece.  I always demonstrate the best way to cut.  First graders need to see you model how to cut things.  Then under my document camera we put my puzzle together as a whole group, and they saw that if they counted by tens correctly, that would put their puzzle together correctly.  They were eager beavers to get to their puzzles!    After it was put together, they colored it.  Again, I modeled how to do this as well. (This took a lot of time too. I'm just saying! LOL)  They turned out great!   I gave each kiddo a baggie to hold their puzzle pieces.  If you would like a FREE copy of this puzzle, click here.

If you have any questions about anything I've presented on this blog post today,  please don't hesitate to ask.  Use the comment tab below and I'll respond back soon.  To make sure you don't miss any new posts, follow me and subscribe in box to the right, near the top, and you'll receive these posts directly to your inbox.   I hope you have an exciting 100th day of school!  

I would love to hear from you...  Name your favorite "100th Day" activity or favorite book to read on the 100th day.  Just click on the "comment' button below. 

January 2018 update... So many of you have asked if you could purchase the other materials I've used like the number circle dividers for the Fruit Loop Necklace and the header I use for the 100th Day Crown.  I just put it all together in one package that you can get at my TPT store here.