100th day of school #bestdayever!
So, I just have to say… 100th day was always a HUGE hit in my classroom. EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR I heard “This was the BEST DAY EVER!” Sha hearts! If they only knew how tired this teacher was after that day…
Here’s a RACAP of our 100th Day!
FRUIT LOOP NECKLACES
Students were given a cup full of fruit loops and some string. I also cut tons of 1 inch square pieces of construction paper and punched holes in them. Students were instructed to take ten fruit loops and put it on their string. Then they would put a square piece of construction paper to partition it off. Then they would do another ten, with a square – until they had a 100 fruit loop necklace. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the kids totally loved it!
TIP #1 – Allow them to have a side of fruitloops that they can nibble on. It’s really hard to smell Fruit Loops and NOT eat them!
EXERCISE
All throughout the day, we would do different exercises counting to 100. I mixed this up every year, but we might do 100 jumping jacks counting by fives, squats counting by tens (only because these kill me), running in place counting by ones, etc. This happened ALL DAY LONG!
I’m 100% sure that our first graders either fell asleep on the bus on the way home, or in the car! Ya’ll… they were POOPED!!! I was fine, though. 😝
BALLOONS
OH MY GOSH – Y’ALL!! This is by far the best one! We would ask our 7th or 8th graders to come to our classroom at a certain time. I would then explain to them that we were doing an experiment. We explained that we were going to time the big kids to see how long it takes them to blow up 100 balloons. Then, after we do a bunch of fun activities with the balloons, we explained that then we are going to time our first graders to see how long it takes them to pop all of the balloons. The kids loved the challenge. So, we timed them and then sent them on their way. Then, throughout the day – we would do a bunch of fun things with the balloons.
- Hit your balloon 100 times without it touching the ground (if it touches the ground, you need to start over)
- Get with a partner and hit it to each other – again… if it touches the ground, you have to start counting all over gain.
- Sorting, counting, etc. Anything you can think of really!
Then, after our last recess, we would put all of the balloons in the middle of the floor. I would call one table at a time to start (after about 8 seconds, I would call the next table). Then they would begin popping the balloons.
I’ve done this for years, and I have to say… this one CRACKED ME UP every time!
And let me just say – the middle school kids were always VERY CURIOUS to see who won! They loved being able to participate.
DISCLAIMER… Please tell your administration and your teacher neighbors… the first year I did this, they thought it was gun shots. YIKES!!!
SNACKS
Now – this was before we had to be careful about snacks. Not sure how this would work today… Every student brought in 10 bags of treats. Within those bags of treats, there were ten items. So if they brought chocolate chips, then they brought ten bags with ten chocolate chip morsels in each bag. We would put all of the bags in the middle of our circle, and we would take turns getting a bag of treats until everyone had ten bags.
POPCORN
Another thing we did was pop popcorn. I told the kids that I was going to pop 100 kernels. Then we voted on if we thought that would be enough to feed all of us. Then we sat in a circle and popped 100 kernels in the circular popper. They LOVED watching it actually pop, since this isn’t something they normally see. Then of course we popped more so that we actually did have enough for everyone.
DRAWINGS/WRITING ACTIVITIES – just to name a few…
Students would also draw what they thought they would look like when they turned 100 years old. They would write what they are going to be doing in 100 years, and they would also take 100 squares (extras cut from the fruit loops) and create a picture using ONLY 100 squares. They would glue it onto an 11×18 piece of construction paper.
We also worked on our little booklet throughout the day. **GRAB YOUR FREEBIE HERE**
100 SECONDS OF SILENCE
So… this one was always fun! 😉 Only because LORDY, LORDY… It got rowdy sometimes!
My motto has always been You CAN have fun while learning! And 100th day is surely no different. Remember, it doesn’t hurt for your kiddos to see you laughing and having fun!
Enjoy the day!
After the Chaos
So… you’ll be tired, I promise… so once things have settled down, or to get things to settle down 😉 why not try a collaborative poster with your students. What’s a collaborative poster you ask? Well- you give ever student a section to color. They can color it however they want, then they cut out their section. Next you guys all work together to make one big door poster with all the little pieces. These turn out super cute and are great for your bulletin board or as a door poster.
It also comes with a fun writing activity that students can do the next day! A great way to remember all of the fun things that you guys did on the 100th day of school.
RESOURCES
Throughout the years, I’ve added other items to help teachers with the 100th day of school. If you would like to check out my resources, click on the pictures below. My students have always loved color-by-number pictures, so I added these sets! If you are a digital escape type of person… YIKES – these are fun!
MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS!
If you are a middle school teacher, check out two other blogs that share their ideas on what they do for 100th day! I taught middle school for four years, and even though they may pretend to be too old, I promise, they aren’t!
Thank you for these great ideas!
ENJOY!!! Even though it was an exhausting day, it was a day they will always remember!
Glad you found them helpful!! Sorry I’m just responding – it’s been a crazy few months!