What better way to celebrate numeracy skills with your students then to throw a party for all things 100! Accomplishing 100 days of school is no small feat. This year I really wanted to get my students excited about place value. It has been such a hard concept year after year for most of my littles so I made it a priority. We started day one counting diligently and watching as the days quickly grouped into tens and how that all came together over the course of the year. I wanted to share the ways we are going to be celebrating our 100th day of school this year to hopefully give some inspiration for others looking to do the same.
First I included S.T.E.M. as it has all the good things.
I knew I wanted our celebration of 100 days of School to be fun, engaging and student-led, when I want this my go to is S.T.E.M. It allows for all the open-ended opportunities that we need. It can be easily accomplished with the right materials and a few key leading questions for the students to consider before they begin.
For this particular day of learning we decided to have each classroom involved put out a hundred of a few different manipulatives and get the students to use their imagination. Some of the examples are: build something with 100 cups, 100 pipe cleaners, 100 blocks. The possibilities are endless really just grab whatever you have a lot of and challenge your students to work together and create.
I also reached out to the entire Primary end to join in on 100 days of school.
Teachers unite ha ha. Most teachers were able to accommodate and this leads to some great opportunities for mixed age groups. For more information on why I feel this is always a great idea click here. I personally love getting older students to take on leadership roles with our younger learners. This leads to opportunities to feel proud, accomplished, helpful, successful and so many other wonderful things, in such a simple and fun way.
For each teacher that was able to participate I took their class list and made small groups to give to them ahead of time. I had the oldest students go around to each class and gather their team mates and then we started rotations of fifteen minutes. Classrooms got two teams at a time and they rotated around through the stations. I also gave teachers these rotations for lost or confused students.
In lieu of Prizes, we have some fun take homes items for our 100 days of school.
I like to make headbands that the students can colour and wear. I hand them out to each teacher to distribute to early finishers. You can grab your free copy of my 100 days of school headband here. Watch out for my upcoming 100 days of school activity package too. This can fill up time for anyone that is finished early and it also adds some S.T.E.A.M to our S.T.E.M. activities.
For anyone not familiar with the acronym it means Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. I also like to hand out 100’s day stickers. All kids love stickers but it also opens up the conversations along with the headbands for students when they go home. Especially for those kids that go home each day and tell their family “nothing” happened that day. When we all know all the things happened… ha!
Why do I think this is a important part of Early Math Learning?
Anytime we can make it fun for our students we are simultaneously making it memorable. So that’s just an automatic win-win for everyone. Keep smiling, it’s almost Spring!
With Love, C.
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