The 100th day in school will arrive around now for most students. To celebrate this milestone, here are some great, easy to implement ideas with a mathematics spin from guest author, Roisin.
It’s such a busy time of the year in schools but also such an exciting time with so much scope for learning in such a variety of subjects.
One which allows for such a fun day of learning is the celebration of the 100th day of school. Given that it’s busy, this doesn’t need to be anything overwhelming but an emphasis based on play around ‘100’. Predominantly Maths based but you would be surprised by just how many curriculum areas can integrate into this celebration!
Here a few ideas and examples from my class.
Anything but 100
If it’s not 100, what is it? Let the kids draw 100 on a blank page (there are also some printable below) and let their imaginations go wild!
This activity lends itself to visual literacy and can really open up the day as a fun morning activity. The 100 can be anything but itself. The kids can add to the digits but it must make something other than 100… eyes, portholes on a ship, a climbing frame…
For older classes, they can finish the sentence “It’s not one hundred, it is ____”.
I find this to a be a nice maths opener that disguises itself as ‘not maths’ so reluctant learners won’t become overwhelmed with maths at the beginning of the day.
If you want a quick start, here is a PDF with some 100s in different styles you can print.
Dress up in the future
A nice whole class or school idea is to dress up as what you predict you’ll look like in 100 years from now or as an 100 year old! Teachers can get involved too!
Allow the school to turn into a glimpse into the future for the day – modes of transport to include futuristic hovering zimmer frames and talking walking sticks!
Older children might want to look at photographs and accounts from a century ago and use that to help think about the changes they might see in the next 100 years.
100 bags
An idea that I love using for stations on the 100th day of school is that of 100 bags. This involves a little preparation but works well for engagement and collaboration.
Fill a selection of bags (sandwich bags, lunch bags, etc.) with a hundred of various manipulatives such as unifix cubes, lollipop sticks, paper clips, ones dienes, numicons, pieces of pasta or even pieces of rice if you really want to get some finer motor in too!
The children can explore and construct whatever they can with the manipulatives in younger classes to incorporate learning around STEM. In older classes, you could compile a list of problems to be solved and displayed using the manipulates.
To further facilitate collaboration in the school, older classes could compile some word problems for younger classes and model how this activity is carried out. Change the station, i.e. the manipulatives, every 5-10 minutes depending on the age.
There are lots of ways this could be extended or minimised. Working along with another teacher in your school if this allows would half the workload of course.
Drop everything and exercise!
Many schools have a DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) allocated time during the school day. For the 100th day, this could be changed to Drop Everything and Exercise and at various points throughout the day the children complete a set of exercises to get them up and moving.
For example, every hour the children get up and complete 10/20 exercises such as lunges, squats, arm swings, sky to toes, a lap of a yard, etc. This shouldn’t take up too much time every hour but would allow for discussion for skip counting and problem solving.
“We have completed 3 sets of 10, let’s count. 10, 20, 30. Great. So if we have 3 more hours of school left, how many more sets must we complete to get to 100?”.
“If we only have 1 hour left but we have completed only 80 exercises, how many must we include in our last set?”.
Again, doesn’t have to be hugely complicated but easily included as part of movement breaks during the day.
100 year old me!
What would you look like in 100 years time? I love providing the class with all the materials they need and allowing them to create their own portrait without templates, etc. In the past, I have used cotton wool, doillies, various colours of sugar paper, project paper, googley eyes, markers, fabric and fibre box, felt, etc.
A cool accompaniment to these pictures as a display is to use the 100 years app to take a picture of the children in your class. This converts their face into what it predicts they will look like in 100 years. Stick this alongside their art work and display outside for others to see. The pictures are guarantee to get a few giggles! Also could include your own picture for an added effect!
Time capsule
This idea can work nicely as the oldest class in the school’s final 100 days in primary school. In the same respect, it can also work nicely as a Junior Infants’ first 100 days in school.
Included in the box could be pictures of themselves on this day, older classes could include a future letter to themselves, include a funny item from the classroom, a class novel, etc. Discuss what they think they would remember in years to come. Perhaps as part of a class reunion years and years down the line, the box can be dug up!!
Let us know if you have any 100 days at school ideas in the comments!
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