100th Day!

I've only taught 4th grade before this year. While I loved planning special events for my kids, I always had a little jealousy for the cutesy things the Kindergarten/1st Grade teachers got to do with their classes.... Until this year. It was then, that I realized all of those teachers are saints and they deserve a party every day in their honor!

One of the most special days for a Kindergarten student is the 100th day. Don't ask me why. Don't ask me who decided on this. It's just a thing that you do in Kindergarten nowadays. :) Having never planned a 100th Day party before,  I was ever so thankful for the internet and crazy, over-achiever teacher blogs who supplied me with way more than enough ideas.

Being that I teach in Malaysia, things never seem to go quite as they should. 100th day was no exception. It fell on a Thursday, which is our 'off-campus' day. (The church where our school meet has a Women's Bible Study on Thursday morning that uses up all of the classroom space, so per our agreement, we're required to meet elsewhere!) Usually we go to another church, but once a month we take a school-wide field trip. This particular Thursday (the 100th day of school) was field trip week, so we spent it at the Science Museum. (That's a post for another day!) I explained the situation to my kids a few days in advance so there wouldn't be any panic attacks and they took it well.

So, Friday, March 2nd, the 101st day of school rolled around and brought with it a party! We started with our regular morning meeting and read 100 Hungry Ants. This helped them see some different combinations to make 100, and since our focus for the day was 10 sets of 10, it was a good way to kick it off! From there, we made our 100th day of school crowns. Students decorated them and then added 10 strips with 10 'objects' on each (fingerprints, dots, stickers, etc)  to make it a true 100. As they finished their crowns, they began writing 100 words. Looking back, this was probably an activity that should've been done over the course of the week. Live and learn. Haha. They had to write 10 words in 10 different categories (girl's names, boy's names, colors, summer words, numbers, school words, winter words, animals, foods, and calendar words). Most of them got through about 50 words before their hands wanted to fall off, so we took our snack break.

For snack, they each got to eat the number 100. Never miss an opportunity to talk about place value, right?

I have the cutest class ever. And they were sweet enough to appease me by wearing their hats for most of the day! Except of course, Mr. Too-Cool-For-School hiding in the background.

After snack, we moved to Writing. This was my favorite activity of the day. We brainstormed and made a bubble map about what life would be like if you were 100 years old. At first, most of them had no concept or ideas, but eventually the ideas started flowing. My favorite was, "You'll shrink and have a crooked back"! They then had to write a story that started, "When I am 100 years old..." To accompany the writing and give them some inspiration, I had used the Old Fart Booth App on my iPad to age each of them and printed out the pictures. They were HILARIOUS. The stories turned out to be less stories and more descriptions, but still funny. See for yourself. :)

"When I am 100 years old, I like my grandchildren. I have gray or white hair. What will you want to look like when you are 100 years old?" - Naomi, age 6

"When I am 100 years old, I will eat grapes. I will go outside and I like my grandchildren." - Carolina, age 6

"When I am 100 years old, I will rest. Watch TV. I will get help. I will die." - Josiah, age 7

"When I am 100 years old, I will wear glasses. I will have grey hair and wrinkles." - John, age 5

"When I am 100 years old, I will play with my grandchildren. My back will be crooked. I will bake cookies. I will shrink. I will stay inside." -Elissa, age 6

"When I am 100 years old, I will have grey hair and have kids. I will have wrinkly skin and a cane. I will shrink and be a lot older and a lot wiser." - Andar, age 7

 

 

 

For Math, they each got a checklist of 10 items that they had to put on a poster (their name 10 times, 10 friend's names, 10 stickers, 10 words, 10 q-tips, 10 shapes, 10 numbers, 10 stamps, 10 paperclips, and 10 thumbprints).

One of the 100 posters!

 After lunch, they had PE and then we made our second set of 100 snacks. For this, they again, had to count out 10 sets of 10. They had a nice little assembly line going, so they got it done quite efficiently!

 

I don't know how anyone would plan one of these parties for a full-sized class!!

We then took our trail mix up to the library and finished out the day watching 101 Dalmatians. None of them had seen the movie before, so their responses and questions were so adorable. They were so confused why it was called 101 Dalmatians when there were only 15 puppies... then when there were only 99 puppies. They were on the edge of their seats when the puppies were escaping Horace and Jasper. They were ordering the puppies not to get splashed by snow when they were covered with soot. Haha. There's actually a lot of inferring and predicting that can be done with the old Disney classics, who knew? It was an exhausting, but very fun and successful day! Now to start planning for next year's party since I'll likely have a majority of the same students and can't use the same ole tricks... hmmm. :)