The 100th Day Of School is kind of a big deal in the primary grades! As it should be, it’s an exciting accomplishment! Below I’m giving you some easy and fun 100th Day Of School Activities to use with your primary learners to celebrate the big day!
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1. Read 100th Day Worries
About a week before the 100th Day of School I always read the book “100th Day Worries” by Margery Cuyler.
It’s such a great story about a little girl named Jessica who worries about everything! So, when her teacher tells her that she needs to bring in a collection of 100 items she immediately starts to worry! How will she ever find 100 things?
Jessica begins to compare herself to everyone else when she sees their amazing collections of 100 peanuts, paper clips, and peppermints. Thanks to the help of her family she ends up bringing in a mismatch collection of 10 things from each family member. She’s unsure it’s going to be enough, but her teacher helps her realize how special her collection is because it’s “100 bits of love!”
I love reading it each year and it also opens up some great conversations about worry, not comparing ourselves to others, and the beauty of family and taking help from others! You and your students will love this book!
Teaching Tip: If you’re looking for some other 100th Day books to read, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorites HERE!
2. Bring in 100 items
After reading the book, “100th Day Worries” I tell the students that our 100th day is coming up! And that they are going to get to bring in their own collection of 100 items! Work together to brainstorm a list of items that students could bring in. Some examples include: M&M’s, paper clips, erasers, silly bands, soda bottle tabs, baseball cards, etc.) Encourage them to not bring in things that roll, like round beads, because it will make it very hard to count!
I always gave my students a quart size ziploc bag to put their 100 items in and told them that their 100 things needed to fit in there. That way I didn’t get a trash bag size of 100 stuffed animals! (I’m sure you can think of a student in your class that would do that! There’s always one of them! 😉 )
Have your students write their name on the bag with a permanent marker before it goes home. Then, send it home along with this note for families. You can get the editable version of this note HERE in my Notes For Parents resource!
Encourage students to bring in their bag before the 100th day. You can also send home reminders to families leading up to the day. I would send a quick digital message through the Remind App, but you can use whatever communication platform you use.
Teaching Tip: On the 100th day have some extra bags ready along with something easy for students to count out. I always used pennies because we had a ton from our math manipulatives!That way you’re set incase you have a student or two that forgets their bag on the 100th day. Remind them that it’s not a big deal at all! And that just like in the book, “100th Day Worries” you’re excited to help them out like Jessica’s family did and share some of your items with them!
3. Dress up like you’re 100 years old
One of my favorite 100th day of school activities is to for students to celebrate by dressing up like they are 100 years old! This is always such a hit and so much fun!
Not every student participates and that is totally okay! Some kids just aren’t into dressing up. But, each year I would say over 75% of my class dressed up and had a blast doing so! It’s always so fun to see their creativity–like curlers in the hair or drawn on mustaches! We’d brainstorm ideas of how to dress up as a class. I would also include the instructions and ideas for dressing up on this editable 100th day note to parents.
This is something that you could also easily do if you’re teaching virtually this year!
Time Saving Tip: Save your editable note on your computer in an 100th Day folder. Then, all you’ll have to do is just edit it each year! I’m all about ways to work smarter and not harder, aren’t you?!
4. Hang a banner or streamers in the doorway
On the eve of the 100th day, hang up a banner or streamers in your doorway for students to walk through the next day! This is such a simple, yet super special way to celebrate your students on the 100th day! Your students will absolutely LOVE this! Their faces are always so special to see when they first walk in!
If you’re teaching virtually you could just hang the banner or streamers behind you for kids to see through the screen!
Time Saving Tip: You can totally just use streamers for this, but for easy prep I made a reusable one that I just saved and pulled out each year. To make it I took some bulletin paper and put the words “You are 100 Days Smarter!” across the top. I put it through our school’s laminator and then cut the bottom into streamers. I did have to cut the paper into two before laminating and then tape it back together after. Then, I just rolled it up and stored it in my 100th day bin. That way all I had to do was pull it out and hang it up each year!
5. Take a “100 Days Smarter” picture
Make a “I am 100 Days Smarter!” sign and take a picture of each of your students holding the sign! Then send the picture to each of your student’s families. Parents LOVE getting a picture of their child! This is such an easy and meaningful way to continue building positive relationships with families!
You can send the pictures digitally to each family or you print the pictures to send home or mail! This is such an easy and fun way to celebrate!
Organization Tip: Keep your sign in your 100th day bin or folder. That way all that you have to do is pull it out and reuse it each year!
6. Play, Explore, & Create!
I always loved rotating students through hands-on stations for the 100th day! However, with all of the social distancing guidelines this year we aren’t able to share supplies or do some of the normal 100th day of school activities that we’ve done in the past. Thankfully these hands-on challenge kits still allow students to play, explore, and create for the 100th day but in a safe way since they have their own individual kits! You can read more about setting up the kits HERE!
I’ve made a special 100th Day Of School Hands-On Kit with challenge cards centered around the 100th day!
You can even set a timer and do different rounds of challenges throughout the day to break up the time. For example, do a make it/play dough challenge time, a draw it/sketch pad challenge time, and a build it/Lego challenge time!
Time Saving Tip: Use these hands-on kits throughout the year by changing out the cards! These kits are lifesavers for morning work, indoor recess, and early finishers! The supplies stay the same, but the cards change weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly so that the kids don’t get bored and lose interest with the kit. You can grab the Monthly Hands-On Kits HERE or the Topic Themed Hands-On Kits HERE.
7. Have Show & Tell
I love doing show & tell in first grade! It has so many great listening and speaking standards wrapped right into it! Do a show and tell on the 100th day by having students share their bag of 100 things that they brought in! Kids love sharing and the no-prep for this activity will leave you saying “easy peasy lemon squeezing!”
Instead of sharing the bags, you could also just do a regular share time. Have students share one thing that they’ve learned the last 100th day or one of their favorite books that you’ve read!
Teaching Tip: Before you start, review the show and tell rules. My rules were always that one person shares at a time and we show respect to that student by giving him or her our eyes and ears the whole time. We do this because we want to “treat others the way that you want to be treated.”
Before 2020 brought a slew of new guidelines, we always would come to the carpet, sit in a circle, and pass a stuffed animal around. The stuffed animal was our “talking” friend–meaning that whoever had the stuffed animal was the one who was talking. I also had students keep their show and tell items behind their back and only bring it out when it was their time to share. This helped minimize distractions so that we could show respect to each person.
7. Skip Count by 10
After show and tell we would count our bag of 100 things. The students and I would discuss and brainstorm the easiest way to group and count the items. Instead of counting them each by one we’d realize that putting them into 10 groups of 10 would be the easiest. So, students would make 10 piles of 10 with their items and then practice skip counting by 10.
Teaching Tip: Give students 10 sticky notes (or 10 squares of paper) for them to put on their desks. They can then put 10 of their items on each sticky note.
8. Make 100th Day Necklaces
Use fruit loops and a piece of yarn to have your students make 100th Day Necklaces! Have them use a hundreds chart to count out the fruit loops before stringing them onto the yarn. This also makes a great 100th Day snack!
Prep Tip: Have the yarn precut and the cereal poured into bowls or bags before the activity! This will make it so much easier to hand out!
9. Do 100th Day Brain Breaks
It’s so important for our kids to get up and moving!! A great way to do this is to use Brain Breaks each day!
But on special days, like the 100th Day I like to add in some fun themed ones! GoNoodle has some great, free 100 themed videos that you can show and do with your students throughout the day! This Skip Count By 100 video is one of them:
You can search “100” on the GoNoodle site to find a few other 100 themed videos!
You can also do 100 exercises! Have your students do 10 desk push ups, 10 jumping jacks, 10 high jumps, 10 arm circles, 10 hops on each foot, etc. to get to 100 different exercises!
Engagement Tip: Do the brain breaks right alongside of your students! Trust me, you’ll need the movement as much as they do! We all know that special days like the 100th day are so fun, but also take a whole new level of energy and result in a different kind of teacher tired than a regular school day!
10. Make a list of 100 Things
Work together as a class to make a list of 100 things! Pick a category and write it at the top of a piece of chart paper. Or you can write on the board or on the computer. Then, write down 100 things that fit into that category.
Some category ideas could be: 100 Books We’ve Read, 100 Words We Know, 100 Things We’ve Learned This Year, 100 Ways To Show Kindness, etc.
It’s amazing how many things you’ll come up with!
11. Play Race to 100
This is an easy and fun math game to play for the 100th day of school! Give each student a hundreds chart, die, and something to mark with on the hundreds chart. You could use mini erasers, counters, or even just crayons! Each student will roll a die, and cover the corresponding number of squares on the hundreds chart. Students win when they make it to 100! This game can be played in small groups, pairs, or can be played individually.
Differentiation tip: Differentiate by using different dice. You can use the ones with numbers or dots. You can also have students roll 2 dice and add the numbers together before they cover the spaces on their hundreds chart.
12. Hand out 100th Day Of School Certificates
What better way to end your special 100th Day of school activities than by handing out this “100 Days Smarter!” certificate to each of your students to celebrate their big accomplishment! Your kids will LOVE getting it from you! I’ve had parents tell me years later that their child still has it from first grade!
This freebie comes with a printable and editable digital version, so that you can either print them to hand them out to your students or you can also send them digitally too! The certificate is also available in color and black/white. Be sure to grab the 100th Day Of School Certificate HERE! I’m so excited for you to use it!
Teaching Tip: As you’re handing out the certificates make a big deal about the accomplishment your students have done by completing 100 days of school and now being 100 days smarter! It’s such an exciting accomplishment! I always had my students cheer the each student’s name and say “Samuel, you’re 100 days smarter!” as we handed them out to each student! This made them feel extra special!
100th Day Of School Activities
The 100th Day of School is such a special day in the primary grades! I’m so excited for you to use these easy, fun, and hands-on 100th Day Of School Activities with your students!
Grab Your 100th Day Of School FREEBIE Here!
Celebrate your students with this editable “100 Days Smarter” Certificate!
Happy 100th Day!!
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