1-2-3 Come Do Some 100 Day Activities With Me

It's that time of year when we're getting close to the 100th Day of school.  This was one of my personal favorite celebration days.  Over the years I had collected so many super-fun math and writing activities, that I decided to have a 100-Day celebration week, so I could get it all in!

Today I'm featuring some of my favorites, which have been up-dated this past week. The 100 Day, "Flip a strip" booklet is a quick, easy & fun 100 Day "print & go" activity that your kiddos are sure to enjoy.

Children can do this independently during your 100 Day celebration, or as a whole group; read the simple sentences, students then take a moment to complete the task. When the booklet is completed, go back and skip count by 10s to count the 100 things.

You can also send this home a few days prior, to be completed and then returned on 100 Day. The booklet can simply be the "strips" or add a bit more pizzazz and have students staple it to the "color me" base.

100 Day just isn't complete without a celebratory crown.  I've included six in the 100 Day Craftivity Crowns packet.  All involve a bit of counting practice.

Look closely at the pictures and you will see how students made 20 groups of 5 on the “100 Day Rocks!” crown, as well as 10 groups of 10 on the heart crown.

The crown with the circle "jewels" on it, has 104 circles and includes a guess-timation math activity.

My personal favorite is the “100 Days Smarter” pencil crown, where students write things that they’ve learned in the past 100 days, that they are especially proud of.

Choose one, or give children a choice. 
You could also make a sample of the “jeweled” crown, adding extra pizzazz with flat-backed rhinestones attached with glue dots.

Pass the sample around and give children 10 seconds to look it over, “guess-timating” how many circles (jewels) are on the crown, then complete the worksheet.

The child with the correct guess, or the one closest to that number is the winner of the “special” crown.

Finally,  the 100+ One Hundred-Day Number Puzzles, are also easy-peasy and a ton of fun. I’ve included a huge variety that count by 1s to 10, count backwards from 10 to 1, as well as skip count by 2s, 3s, 5s & 10s.

There are 112 in all. Some are vertical, while others are horizontal and feature a nice assortment of themes.
Pick and choose your favorites to make a collection of choices for your students.

Print, laminate & trim the full color options and use as an independent math center. 
Use the black & white ones, so that students can color & cut up their own puzzle.

For an interesting “craftivity” have students glue their puzzle to a sheet of construction paper.

Remind them to leave a little bit of a gap between each numbered strip, to create an especially cool mosaic effect. Completed projects make a cute bulletin board.

I’ve included a “We are 100 days smarter!” poster puzzle, to use as the center of your display, along with a “My students are 100 days smarter! They know how to . . .” writing prompt poster, that you fill in with what you’ve taught your kiddos.

To mix math with literacy, have students complete the “Proud to be 100 days smarter!” writing prompt and glue it to the back of their puzzle, then suspend from the ceiling.

Besides the full-size puzzles, I’ve also designed a set of “Happy 100 Day!” 4-on-a-page mini puzzles, as an inexpensive little surprise for your students.

They feature a vibrant, rainbow-colored 100, with 2 options: numbers 1-10, as well as skip counting by 10s to 100.

Print, trim, and put in a Snack Baggie, then attach the “Here is a little something to do because I’m simply so proud of you!” header. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is also a quick, easy & fun "print & go" activity. The "Dots 'n Boxes"  game was first published in 1889 by Édouard Lucas.

I thought it would make a quick, easy and fun game of strategy for students to play anytime, but specifically for 100 Day, as I made a 100-box grid.

Children choose a partner and take turns connecting 2 dots by making a line between them.
The object of the game is to be the last person to connect the last line that will complete a box. When you complete a box, you get to write your initial in it.

When all 100 boxes have been made, students count up how many they have with their initial in them. The one with the most boxes is the winner. 

Well that's it for today. I hope you found something useful here to make your 100-Day celebration especially fun. 

"Educating the mind, without educating the heart, is no education at all." -Aristotle

1-2-3 Come Do Some 100 Day Craftivities With Me

There is only so much one can accomplish in a day, and so many super-fun 100 Day ideas, that I decided long ago to do 100-Day activities over several days, culminating with an extra-special celebration on our 100th day of school.

With that in mind, I designed a variety of quick, easy and fun activities for you to choose from. They make terrific whole group activities, as well as independent centers.  Today I'm featuring a few of our most downloaded 100-Day craftivities.  I hope you like them.   

After my students complete their "table top" worksheets, they can visit the 100 Day "centers".  I set these up on wooden TV trays, where students can collect the materials they need and return to their desks to complete them. 

Run these "I'm 100 Days Smarter, and That's Something to Smile About!"  100-Day smilie-face bookmarks off, on a variety of pastel-colored construction paper.  Each child chooses one, then counts by 1s to 100, as they fill them in. When everyone is done, count the rows by 5s to also reach 100.  The master template has 5 bookmarks on a page for quick printing.

If you're looking for some 100 Day certificates to pass out to your kiddos, click on the link for 18.  They are in black & white and full color. 

Again, I give my students a choice of which one they want to color, and use the full color ones as awards for some of our games.

 My Y5's loved making and wearing crowns, so our day wouldn't have been complete without some for our 100th day of school celebration.

These three 100 Day crowns, helped reinforce counting and were set up as a center. 

Look closely at the pictures and you will see how students made 20 groups of 5 on the 100 Day Rocks crown, as well as 10 groups of 10 on the heart crown. 

The crown with the circle "jewels" on it, has 104 circles and includes a guess-timation activity.

Another crown option, reviews shapes,colors and graphing, while making a "shapely" crown for 100 Day.

There is a black and white set, as well as a color set for teachers. 

I've also included a blank 100, if you want your students to draw, dot or sticker 10 different items (10 times each) inside the numbers, to make their own creative crown.

Another of their favorite activities, was our "Oldies Banner".  Challenge your students to think about how they might look if they live to be 100, then have them draw a self-portrait or use an aging app to create a photograph. 

Suggestions and links for apps are included, as well as templates for an "Oldie 100-Day Pennant Banner."

You can also "reinforce" the number 100 with this 100 Day banner craftivity.  Reinforcement hole stickers are inexpensive and come in packs of a 1,000 for less than $2. 

You can get plain white ones or ones in bright or neon colors.  Simply run the banner template off on  a variety of colors of construction paper.  Add school photographs for that finishing touch.  Have students trim and then hang your banner from the ceiling against a wall.

Each month I also did a "rip & tear" craftivity. For February, it was the number 100 for our 100th Day of school celebration.

Ripping & tearing is a great fine motor skill.  Simply cut construction paper strips, in a variety of colors. 

I made mine an inch wide.  Students can choose two colors if you want them to do an ABAB pattern, or lots of colors as this child did in the pictured sample. 

I had my Y5's rip up piles of each color, and then using a glue stick, they rubbed the numbers and stuck the torn pieces of paper to them. Completed projects make a wonderful 100 Day bulletin board.

Finally, since the full color 100 Day puzzles were such a huge hit, I thought I'd make some 100 Day number puzzles in black and white, so that your students can choose one and color their own. 

There are 15 puzzles, which help students practice counting from 1-10, count backwards from 10 to 1, as well as skip count by 10s to 100. 

Treat them as an independent puzzle-center activity, or do as a whole group activity.  For an interesting 100 Day bulletin board, have students glue their puzzle pieces onto a sheet of construction paper.  For an awesome mosaic effect, have children leave a little space in-between each piece.  

For more 100 Day ideas and activities, scroll down to take a look at all of the other 100 Day FREEBIES featured in last week's blog articles.  You can also click on the link to pop over to the 100 Day Celebration section of TeachWithMe to see all of the activities I have for 100 Day.  In case you're new here, everything on my site is free.

For even more 100 Day ideas and FREEBIES, check out my Pinterest postings.  I have a board specifically for 100 Day activities.

Thanks for visiting today.  Even though my mind is buzzing with crafty things I still want to make, it's the weekend, so it's time for a break to chill and take a much-needed rest from work that's mostly play for me.  Wishing you a relaxing day. 

 "A journey of [100] miles begins with a single step."

1-2-3 Come Do Some More  "Fun-tastic" 100 Day Activities With Me

Terri teaches 3-year-old preschool in Oklahoma, and asked if I could make a 100 Day coloring page for her kiddo's.  I put two on a page to conserve paper.  Older students could fill up the numbers with groups of 5 or 10 things to add up to 100. (Dots, X's, stickers, etc.) Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day coloring page.

Carleen, in Illinois, requested an easy 100 Day crown for her kinders. If you didn't see the 100 Day crown that incorporated 100 shapes (click on the link to grab it.) In the 100-Day Crown packet, I've included 3 simpler crowns.

Since quite a few people celebrate 100 Day in February, I designed a heart-shaped crown.  Run off on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim.  Using 10 different colored markers, children make 10 groups of 10 dots, inside the 100 number; trim and glue to the center of the heart. 

Staple the heart to a sentence strip or bulletin board boarder to make an easy 100 Day crown. If your kiddo's are in PK, you can skip the counting by 10's to 100 dot portion, and simply have them color the number. 

100 Rocks! is another easy crown to make.  Since it has 5 balls on the top of the points, have students make twenty groups of 5 dots inside the crown, and then skip count to 100 by 5's.  I grouped my dots to look like the 5 on a dice pattern.  Run off on construction paper, trim and glue or staple to a paper headband.

My personal favorite, is the "circle-jeweled" crown.  There are 104 circles on the crown. I purposely did not make 100, as I discovered that no matter what "guessing" activity I gave my Y5's, they were always guessing the number 100, simply because it was 100 Day. 

I've included a guess-timation page, where students write down how many circles they think are on the crown and then compare their answer to the correct one.  This is a nice review of the math terms greater than, less than and equal to. 

Buy a pack of 475 Avery mini-colored dot-stickers for less than $2, and have your kiddo's get some fine motor practice in, while they peel and press the dots on the circles of their crown.  Flat-backed rhinestones are also fun, and add that finishing touch.  Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day Crown packet.

Since the back-to-school banners were so popular this fall, I decided to dream up 2 for your 100 Day celebration.  One of the "craftivities" that my Y5's really enjoyed doing, was drawing a picture of how they would look if they lived to be 100. 

Before hand, we discussed how a person ages, and things that were typical of the aging process.  i.e. hair turning gray and white, wrinkles, sagging skin, the need to wear glasses etc. I reminded them of what "granny" had looked like the day before.

On the 99th Day of school, my 100-year-old granny came to school and read them a few 100 Day books. 

This was really me dressed up to the hilt to look like an old woman for story time.  Click on the link to check out the details of this fun activity.  

After our aging discussion, I gave my kiddo's a construction paper oval and they drew in their details. When they were done, they ran their portrait through the "cruncher muncher."

This is a roller tool that crinkles paper to look like corrugated cardboard.  The result was a nice "wrinkled" appearance which you can see in the sample photo.  The completed pictures made an adorable 100 Day bulletin board. 

This year I thought it would be fun to make the self-portraits smaller and have students draw themselves inside an oval.  When they are done, they choose a colored pennant and glue their photo in place. 

Punch holes on either side of the pennants and tie together with yarn.  Hang as a border on a hallway wall, or suspend from your ceiling. 

I've included templates for the first and last pennants, as well as one for the boys, plus one for the girls.   Make sure to make one of yourself. Click on the link to view/download the Oldies One Hundred Day Banner.

If you're a tech type of person, you may want to download an aging app.  After over an hour of research, I found that the 2 best apps that will age a photo, are Oldify and Aging Booth.  Both have been given 4 to 5 stars depending on the review page you're on; and both cost .99 cents.

Since there were more positive reviews about Oldify, I downloaded that.  It has the added bonus of being able to record your voice.  The eyes blink, the mouth moves and your photo appears a bit "real".  

Make sure you "play" around with whatever you decide, as I didn't find Oldify all that easy to figure out.  You can always Google the app on YouTube, as I did find several tutorials over there. 

There are quite a few free "age me" apps, but "you get what you pay for" seems to ring pretty true here.  Instead of, or in addition to, having students draw themselves at the ripe old age of 100, you can take a head shot of each of your students, age them with the app and then print them off. 

I'm sure they'll find this loads of fun.  If you have a Smart Board, you could demonstrate the process and then have students create their own. These would look awesome on the Oldies Banner.

A simpler banner, involves reinforcement holes. Since they are pretty inexpensive, (you can buy a pack of 924 for less than $2) I liked to use them quite a bit with my Y5's.  Peeling and pressing them on something, was great fine motor skill practice. 

With that in mind, I designed the "reinforce 100" with a 100 Day's Smarter banner, as well as the 100-Day Snowman craftivity.  Click on the links to check them out. 

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away.  My "Pin it!" button is on the menu bar.

"We'll start our day with a great big grin; because our 100 Day celebration, is about to begin!"