100 Days - Hooray!

Hooray!!  We just had a super fun and exciting 100 day celebration in our classroom.  Each sweet little student made a 100 hat with either tally marks or 100 stickers on it.  Each kiddo also got a 100 day completion certificate like the one I am holding.  (You can find that here: Print and Go! 100 Days Math and Literacy)  I felt so happy that we had a successful 100th day together, I was bold and posted this "selfie" (taken by my friend Bria) on Instagram yesterday.  Yikes!  You will see the reason this picture is here on the bottom of the post.

Do you ever do count downs in your classroom?  I try to do this whenever the kids express curiosity in how many days are left until some special event.  First, we collaboratively figure out how many days are left and then I make the number in tally marks.  We erase one each day and use the tally marks to determine how many days  are still left.  They love it and it builds anticipation.  You have to make sure your class can handle the added excitement if you do this and make sure you put on a great day so it lives up to expectations. 

I like to do collaborative 100 activities in the classroom before the day arrives.  This bulletin board is showing all the books we read during the week of the 100th day.  It is really easy to accomplish this if you include books from guided reading and independent reading practice.  I write the title and author on each paper and the student writes his/her name.  You can see them better here:

The kids are always really proud to see that we are collaboratively reading over 100 books per week on a regular basis.  You can grab these book recording papers to make your own bulletin board for FREE at the bottom of this post.  


 I also did a 100 acts of kindness project with my class a couple years ago.  Here is the bulletin board while the project was in progress:

I was really proud of this group when they were actively trying to do kind things at school each day.  It was such a sweet activity.  Each time a student did something kind, we wrote out the act with his/her name on a heart and put it up on the board. 


This year, we did a project based homework activity where each child brought in something that s/he had made with 100 objects.  I was so impressed with the outcomes.  There were several buildings made with plastic building blocks.  There was a cool necklace and we also had 100 hearts on a string which my sweet little student wants to keep in the classroom as a decoration for Valentines Day.  I said YES!  Here are a few others that were really fun:

100 beads to make the number.

100 leaves and other natural elements to make a sweet art piece.

This was named "Dollar Man" during our walk and talk discussion time to look at all the projects.  The kids did such a nice job of making positive comments and asking great questions about their friends' work.

Everyone in our class was impressed with this amazing sculpture made with 100 plastic items.  Many kids wanted to know how it was glued together.  We found out that hot glue was used by about 6 out of 20 students to do these 100 item projects.

This was another favorite with our class.  The 100 button tree is absolutely beautiful.  Ahhh...



I always do the 100 days snack activity.  It is a favorite with students and one of the things they remember long into their older years.  This is a simple activity to accomplish if you don't mind shopping for the goodies.  Here is an example of how my kiddos count out 10 each of 10 snacks:

YUM!  That mat is from my Print and Go! 100 days pack.  It has lots of black and white printables to help you with your 100 day celebration.  The kiddos take the mat around the table of treats and count out ten of each on each of the circles.  When the mat is full, they fold it and slide the snacks into a plastic zip bag with their name on it.  Easy and FUN!



I also like to have my kiddos write about what they would do with $100 every year.  I leave this prompt open ended (what would you do rather than what would you buy).  I love it when kids decide they would save the money.  Every year I have at least one or two that say they would save it.  I have even had kids say they would give it to charity.  Wow!  Here are a couple of really cute ones:

"I would save it for the Disney Hotel.  I would meet Mickey and Minny."

" I would save a $100 bill and I would put it into a treasure chest."

OK, this is my favorite activity.  Do you do an estimation station for your 100th day celebration?  I love doing this because it is a great critical thinking challenge for your young students.  There are many ways to do this type of activity and you can find it on blogs all over the net.  This is just the way I have always done it.  You might want to do this after your kids have had plenty of experiences with estimation using different sized objects in the jars you plan to use for the activity.  We did estimation each day for two weeks leading up to this.  One jar has more than 100, one jar has less than 100, and one jar has exactly 100.  Do you know which one is which?  Most of my kindergarten students guessed right!  I was so proud of them.  Here are some examples of the work from this activity.

Here are the actual numbers:

Yes, this activity is in my Print and Go! 100 days pack too.  That pack has been such a huge help to me.  It also includes estimation practice sheets so you can lead up to the activity above.  These are what the practice sheets look like.  There are four on an 8.5 X 11 inch page.

Another fun activity we did this year is using an iPad app to make our photos look like we are 100 years old.  It was a free app and it works!  I know I should be embarrassed to post this picture of myself.  Time for true confessions here.  I took this at 6:00 am the morning of my 100th day.  I had another technology activity planned, but after talking to a friend the day before, I decided to do this because she had done it too.  So, remember, this is no make up, no smile, bed head, and NO COFFEE!  I was testing the app to make sure it worked.

Boy, does it ever work!  My husband was horrified when he saw this picture.  But my kiddos were absolutely in stitches!  They thought it was hilarious and were so excited to make one of themselves.  So, each student had a photo taken with the iPad and then we printed out the "100 years old" photos on my classroom printer.  It was fantastic!  We were having so much fun with it that we also took pics of our principal and the school secretary as well as all the parent helpers in the room.  I can honestly say that this app made my adorable 5 and 6 year old students look like senior citizens.  We are going to use the photos to write about being 100 years old next week.  This is the app I used: Aging Booth by PiVi & Co.   It was FREE and it worked great for my students in my classroom.  Go back to the top to compare this photo with what I really look like.  Ha ha!

If you are looking for more ideas for your 100th day celebration, check out my other blog post here: 100 Days of School!  You may also want to go look at my Pinterest board here: 100 Days of School! on Pinterest

OK, here is the 100 book bulletin board FREEBIE:

Click on the link under the image to go grab it.

100 Books Read bulletin board

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a super 100th day celebration with your kiddos this year.

Happy teaching!

Start your year INSPIRED... with a SALE!

Hey there!  Just wanted to let you know there is a big sitewide sale going on at Teachers pay Teachers today and tomorrow.  Everything in my store will be 20% off and you can get an additional 10% off if you use promo code START16 at checkout.  That is a savings of 28% off.  Woo hoo!  Time to get all those things off my wish list that I have been wanting.

Here are a few things in my store that may be inspiring and helpful to you right now:

This is a fun pack of interactive skill practice pages to help you all winter long.  You will find lots of fun pages for math and literacy with a sweet winter theme.  You can also find some fun winter learning ideas on this blog post: Snow Much Fun!

Are you counting down for the 100th day of school?  This pack has lots of low prep and no prep printables to have a fun celebration with your class.  You can also find lots of ideas here: 100 Days of School!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  Do you have fun activities for your classroom?  This pack has lots of skill practice pages perfect for Kindergarten in February.  You can also find lots of inspiration for Valentine's Day on my Pinterest board here: Vibrant Valentines

I hope you are feeling inspired and find some great deals on Teachers pay Teachers today and tomorrow.
Happy shopping!
Happy teaching!

100 Days of School!

We have been getting ready for the 100th day of school in our classroom.  We have been counting by 10s, by 5s, and by 1s to 100.  We have been learning what 100 looks like.  We have been exploring 100 in many ways...

A yummy activity to practice counting to 100 by tens.  If you would like to do this activity with your class, you can find it at Teachers Pay Teachers.  Just click on the link or image below:

Count-by-10-ice-cream-fun

 

A class quilt to practice counting to 100 by fives.  The kids were so excited about this when they came to school and it was all put together and up in the room.  They spontaneously broke out into a chant counting.  It was wonderful!

This activity really helped solidify the concept that ten groups of ten make 100 for my little students.  I got this idea from a pin that originally came from For the Love of Kindergarten http://kindergartenfreckleteacher.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-week-in-pictures-and-links-2-62-10.html
She has some other fun ideas for 100 and lots of other cool stuff going on in her class last February.  This was my take on the paint dots idea.  Thanks Cindy!  If you would like to get the printable shown in the photo above along with all sorts of other goodies for your class, you can get it here: Print and Go! 100 Days Math and Literacy (NO PREP).

You can also do the dot painting this way too.  It's fun to make 100 gumballs.  This sheet is also in my Print and Go! 100 Days Math and Literacy (NO PREP) .  All you have to do is make copies, put out the paint, and you're done!  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

We did the 100s chart puzzles a few days before the actual 100th day.  I made them in several colors so that the kids could keep track of their pieces easier.  And so that our bulletin board will be more colorful.  Ha ha!

This is one of the activities the kids did independently on the 100th day.  Small groups worked together collaboratively to build a structure with 100 blocks.  Looks Great!

Another activity that kids had to do independently and collaboratively was to find the 100 hearts hidden around the classroom.  They found all but three and worked together to put them in order.  They needed 71, 84, and 86.  They were hidden in the felt board area in the bag with the felt shapes.  Tricky!  The hearts are tipped because they were too pointy to stand straight in the pocket chart.  Speaking of pocket charts, in this photo, mine sure looks old.  Maybe it is time for a new one...

We also had a center for the kids to make a bag with 100 snacks.  Some teachers call this activity a trail mix.  I call it snacks.  We do a very simple version of it.  I put each of the ten snacks out on a table.  Students each have a baggie with their name written on it.  They take turns going to each of the snacks and counting out 10 into the baggie.  The kiddos were so excited to eat it at recess.  Yippee!

Each child got to make a special 100s day hat with 100 stickers on it.  They look so cute wearing the hats in the classroom.  Fun!

The most challenging activity of our 100th day was writing about what you would do if you had $100.  Most of my students this year decided to spend it.  One or two decided to save it.  One little boy said he would give it to his family.  I thought that was sooooo sweet!

Here are a couple of interesting ones:

"I would buy a peecok."

"I would bi a hol oshin!"

I love the kids' drawing and writing!  So cute.  This prompt is so fun to see what their ideas are about.  I do this every year for the 100th day.

UPDATE JANUARY 2015:
This year, I finally made the time to create all my favorite activities for the 100th day in  a time saving, black and white ink saving, Print and Go! pack.   If you are looking for some new things or some oldies but goodies that have cute graphics and simple layouts for young students, you should go check it out.  (Just click on the image below to go get it.)  I hope you have a wonderful 100th day celebration with your sweeties!

Happy 100th day!
Happy teaching!