Celebrating 100 Days of School

We recently passed the 100th Day of School. The former first grade teacher in me just can't pass up the chance to celebrate this fun day, so I set up 100th Day centers in the Media Center for Kindergarten and first grade classes.

I have done this for 3 years now (you can read about past years here and here), and have varied it each year, but I think this year was the most successful. I took about 5 minutes to go over the centers and then had students go to their tables to begin the first center rotation.  Each center took about 5 minutes to complete and then we rotated to the next center.  I asked that a teacher or TA stay just for this one day to help out, but you could probably adjust some of the centers to make it work without an extra pair of hands, or maybe recruit a parent volunteer to help out just during your kindergarten and first grade classes, or whichever grade levels you wanted to do these centers with.

Here are the centers I set up:

Center 1:  How long is 100 seconds?

In this center, students sit with their eyes closed for 100 seconds to feel how long that is. Then they race to write their names as many times as they can in 100 seconds and compare with everyone in the group.  I usually have another teacher or TA at this table to help with the timer and to lead the discussion.

Center 2:  What Does 100 Look Like?

In this center, students must decide which container out of 5 contains 100 items.  But here's the kicker...all the containers have 100 items!  I usually man this center and lead the discussion about why each student chose the container that they did and why the container with the 100 gumballs looks like it contains more items than the container with the 100 paperclips.

Thanks to Mary, a fabulous kindergarten coworker and blog author of Sharing Kindergarten for the photo.  =)

Since this center doesn't take very long, I downloaded the AgingBooth app and aged each student's picture (of those who wanted to participate) to see what they would look like when they are 100 years old.  This scared one student in the first group, so after that I started with my picture to show them how it would work and also presented as "Let's see what you will look like when you are a grandmother or grandfather."  No one got upset after that, and most thought it was pretty funny.  Some students said it was gross, but still laughed.  I also aged some of the teachers and the kids really got a kick out of that.

Center 3:  100th Day Bookmarks

You know my kids love bookmarks, so I just had to make this a center this year.  I made both girl and boy bookmarks with a place to show what 100 looks like on the back.  I put out both crayons and markers for them to use.  They loved it...especially the markers.

Center 4:  100 Cup Tower

At this center, students worked together to build a tower with 100 cups.  A few cups have gotten torn, but I have used these same cups for 2 years now, so...not too bad of an investment. They LOVE this center!.

Center 5:  100th Day Puzzle

This was a new center I created this year.  I made a puzzle and divided it into 10 different pieces. I put the numbers from 10 to 100 (by tens) at the bottom of each pieces as a little hint.  I sealed an envelope and laminated it, then cut out and cut it in half to use as a place to keep all of the pieces.  I drew shapes (circle, triangle, square, star, heart) on the back of all the pieces in each set (one shape for each set) in case the pieces got mixed up and I also put the corresponding shape on the envelope to make it easy to organize and clean up.

I am working on updating my 100th Day pack on TpT to include the bookmarks and puzzle and to redo the clipart a bit, but for now the 100th Day Center pack on TpT includes centers 1 and 2 and a different version of center 4 in it (100 block tower instead), as well as 7 other centers for a total of 10 centers.

Until then, you can get the bookmarks and puzzle for free by clicking here.

Do you do anything special to celebrate the 100th Day?

Media Center Stations for the 100th Day

I recently came across a blog/website that tells of making centers in the Media Center. (Here is a link to a wiki about Library Centers:
http://elementarylibraryroutines.wikispaces.com/Library+Centers+Procedure) I think this is a great, albeit, ambitious idea.  So I thought I would ease into the idea.

The 100th day of School is quickly approaching.  I thought this would be an easy introduction to Media Center stations with a 100th Day activity at each station.  There are tons of 100th Day ideas floating around.  I thought surely I could come up with 4 or 5 stations that I could do with Kindergarten and First Grade classes. Well, as it turns out, I came up with 10 and I've created a whole packet to go with these activities...46 pages in all!!!  You can find them on Teachers pay Teachers, if you're interested.  Click on the picture below to go there now.

I took a few pictures of what the activities look like when set up.  I am actually going to be doing these activities with K and 1 classes on the 101st day of school because I don't teach classes on that day.  So the pictures show the activities with 101 instead of 100. The actual packet is for the 100th day, though.

Station 1:  100 Ladybug Dots

Students decorate a dot and glue it to the ladybug until the ladybug has 100 dots.  I used bulletin board paper to create the ladybug.

Station 4:  ABC/Numerical Order

Students use the word or number cards and put them in alphabetical order or numerical order. There are 100 of each type of card.

Station 6:  100 Names

Students sign their name on a 100th Day poster that says "We are 100 days smarter!"

I made direction "tents" to go with each station.  Here's how to get the "tents" to stand up.

Cut out the station "tent" signs leaving the top and bottom edges.

 Fold those edges down.

It will look like this.

Then tape a large notecard on the inside edges to make the bottom of the "tent."

This is what the final result looks like.  The "tent" will stay up better if it is made this way.

In addition to these activities, I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the books the students check out this week, so I am going to have them write down the name of the books they check out on a paper book when they come for their lessons.  These "books" will be put on the MC doors throughout the week until we reach 101, since I am doing 101st Day activities.  Here are pictures of the door:

You can snag a copy of the book slip here.  Just click on the picture.

I am going to do these activities on Friday.  After all the creating and planning, I really hope things go well.  I will let you know how it goes.

Just curious...are you planning anything special for the 100th day or 101st day of school? Do you do Library Centers?  I'd love to hear your ideas.