Celebrating the 100th Day of Kindergarten!

There are so many great possibilities for celebrating the 100th day of school. Have fun with it whether you start in September or on day 90!

 

Tally The Days

This year I kept a tally chart of the number of days we had been in school, starting on the first day of school. Every day we added one straw to the ones place and changed the number to show the correct number of straws. When we got to ten, we bundled the straws with an elastic and moved them to the tens column. We put a 1 in the 10's place and a 0 in the 1's place. As the students got better at seeing patterns they were able to tell me what the numbers should be and how many straws were in each one. By January they were doing the tally chart by themselves and we would check it as a class. On the 100th day we finally got to group the 10 bundles of ten and make 100. We put that group into the 100's column and no straws in the others. One student even asked if we were finished school today because we had reached 100!

 

100's Day Glasses

We made some funny looking paper glasses to wear at our party. Each child was given two strips of paper and a number 100 with the middle of the zeros cut out for them. They were able to decorate their glasses with bingo dabbers and stickers. Some even put 100 small round stickers on their glasses. They wore the glasses all day!

Insert picture of 1glasses making and 2Alex wearing the glasses

 

Fruit Loop Necklace

A fun activity that turns into a snack! Each child was given a bowl of fruit loops, a long piece of plastic craft string and a 11x17 placemat with 10 circles drawn onto it. Inside each of the 10 circles the number ten was printed.

Instructions:

1. Count out ten fruit loops for each circle on the placemat. When we count by ten we get 100!

Insert picture of fruit loop sorting.

2. String your fruit loops onto the plastic string. Keep it on the table so it stays clean! (Each plastic string was an adult arm length and had a bead tied to one end so the fruit loops would not fall off)

3. When you are finished putting 100 fruit loops onto your necklace I will tie it for you and you get to eat it all up!

Insert picture of necklace.

 

100 Balloons

A few days before the 100th day of school we started blowing up 100 balloons. We had "linking balloons" that could be tied together. The children helped by using a pump to blow up about 3-4 balloons each. We strung them together and hung them from the ceiling. We counted the balloons at snack one day too! An extension to this activity would be to make a tally mark for each different colour. How many red? How many green? How many yellow? How many altogether? You could have 10 groups of 10 colours.

 

100 Day Gorp (Snack)

I read the story, 100 School Days, by Anne Rockwell. We talked about the snack the children in the book made. We decided to each bring in a bag full of 100 delicious dried foods. At the party we each told what we brought and dumped our bag into a large bowl. We mixed up the Gorp and shared it for snack. Some examples of what they brought include: 100 raisins, 100 chocolate chips, 100 pretzels, 100 dried fruit, 100 cereal, 100 crackers, 100 jelly beans, 100 marshmallows, 100 Smarties. It was so YUMMY!

 

100 Pennies

I brought in a small jar with 100 pennies in it. We made predictions about how many pennies were in the jar. We also estimated if there were more/less than 100. We decided to try counting by 10's. We laid out 10 elastic bands and put 10 pennies into each band. We sorted the pennies into the elastic bands and checked our predictions. The children were pleasantly surprised to see how little space 100 pennies took up. They compared it to the amount of space our 100 balloons took up. What a big difference!

 

My 100 Favourite Things

I read the story, Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, by Joseph Slate. I had my class bring in their collection of 100 wonderful things. I asked them to make sure it could fit into a shopping bag. At the party we celebrated our special things by telling what they were and putting them on a display table. Some of the collections included: crayons, toy cars, beads, stickers, and ball bearings from dad's shop. What a great way to celebrate individuality!

 

100 Years Old!

We all dressed up like we were 100 years old! Earlier in the week we talked about grandparents and seniors and how people might change when they get old. We brainstormed what sort of clothes we could wear, how we would act and move. The other kindergarten teachers and I were dressed and waiting when our students arrived. It was fabulous to see their confused faces as they tried to figure out if I was really their teacher! I played the part all morning by moving slowly and asking them to speak up because I couldn't hear them. Some of the students had canes and glasses, one even had white hair and a moustache. I have never seen a 5 year old with a moustache! It was a great deal of fun!

 

100 Day Poem

10, 20, 30 Days

40, 50, 60 Days

70, 80, 90 Day

100 Days of School!

 

100 Bubbles

You could hand out small bottles of bubbles and have each child try to blow 100 bubbles!

 

Popcorn

You could have the students help you count out 100 kernels of popcorn and record how much space they take up (example: one cup). Next, you could estimate how many cups of popcorn will result when the kernels are popped. They could draw/colour the number of cups before it's popped and after. They could circle/write the word more/less in the sentence: When the kernels popped there was more/less than what I estimated there would be. Enjoy eating this as a snack or add 100 popped kernels to your Gorp mix!