I Teach K : Hooray for the 100th Day

Today was a special day in our classroom! We celebrated the 100th day! I decided that I'd like to share some things we did to prepare for our big day, and activities we did together today. Some are digital, some STEM, and some just plain good fun you can "count on"!

The number below was represented by using the app "Number Pieces". It was the 98th day of school, so I had the students count it out for me and take a screenshot and send it to me in Seesaw. Before they could do that, though, we did a lot of number building together. It's a great app for other skills, too, such as addition and subtraction, understanding the concept of "trading" and regrouping, plus use the drawing tools within the app to allow students to label their representations and show their understanding.

Another really fun 100th day activity was "Roll to 100", which is a dice game that I used to do on paper! Students did this activity as a math station, so just 4-6 kids at a time roll a die and use "stamps" in Doodle Buddy to mark the number of boxes they rolled. To get this hundreds chart to each iPad, you could use AirDrop, but I used Seesaw. I loaded it in my teacher portfolio, and students accessed it and downloaded it (just click the 3 dots and choose "Save", then choose camera roll - I tell the kids to find the "flower"). Then, in Doodle Buddy, students choose the chart in the background options, and get started. It worked great, and the kids did a super job following these multi-step directions (remember, I was monitoring just 4-6 kids, so it's very managable!). You can read more about this task in an old blog post, too.

We did a little 100th day creative writing in Seesaw, too. We read the story The Wolf's Chicken Stew, and wrote about things we COULD eat 100 of (Skittles, grapes, m&ms, berries, etc.), and things we COULD NOT (cheeseburgers, cakes, donuts, pizzas, etc.) Check out these cute examples!

I also asked the kids to brainstorm what they could do with $100. Some fun ideas were shared, like get a dog, buy lots of candy, and go to Disney!

The final digital activity I'll share with you was scanning QR codes around the room. Students had to scan to find the numbers, then color those on a hundreds chart, to reveal a secret picture. We did this scanning activity with 5th grade buddies, which helped when the numbers are so big! To make this, I designed the secret picture on the chart, and did a Google image search for each number. In some cases, I used a base ten block image of a number, or a simple addition sentence (50+7). Once I found the image I wanted, I used the website QRstuff to generate a code with the image URL, then pasted the code in a Google Doc to make cards to print and tape on the walls. You can read this post to see more about how I've used QR codes with my class, or this post, or this one, too. 😊

Now for some 100th day STEM and problem solving activities!

I have five tables in my room, so I had five stations. I planned to do 10 minutes at each station during our Math block. The kids had a great time and were very engaged with each challenge.

(1) Building a "bridge" with 100 pennies (we watched this video to help us get started)

(2) Building the number 100 out of Legos (inspired by this TPT image) Last year, I bagged up 100 bricks for each student at the station to build whatever they wanted, but we had a snow day and I didn't have time to count them out! I thought this idea was a fitting substitute, and it was surprising how the children felt challenged and stumped by making these zeros!

(3) Building a structure with 100 cups. Some groups built a tall tower, some decided to go wide! The kids couldn't WAIT to get to this station, and I anticipate keeping the cups available for the coming days during choice time.

(4) Hundreds Chart puzzles were a great challenge, as well. I printed some charts on colored construction, then cut them apart in different odd size shapes. The students worked on putting it back together, using their understanding of number order and patterns. Those that finished easily enjoyed helping a neighbor to complete theirs, too.

(5) Good old fashioned 100 piece puzzles were a hit, as well, although neither puzzle was finished after all five rotations! I was impressed with the students' perseverance, though! At the end of the day, we put the completed portions in the box to work on tomorrow :)

Other activities throughout the day included:

making a necklace with 100 Froot Loops
making a 100th day crown to wear
having a fashion show to model the shirts they designed at home with 100 items
jumping for 100 seconds with this video
reading 100th Day Worries
eating a delicious snack that looked like the number 100 (my treat for the class!)

Finally, the 100th day is never complete without using the "Aging Booth" app, to see what we'll look like when we're 100 years old. We laughed and laughed at these effects!

Thanks for checking in on us to see the fun we had in class for our 100th day. It was a fun celebration of all the learning, trying, thinking, and caring that we've done this year together. Please comment if you have some great 100th day ideas to share!