Yesterday was our 100th day of school. We have been counting the days of school this year to work on developing math concepts in a fun way. Each morning during our morning meeting we colored in the day on a 100 grid then counted up to that number in various ways (regular counting as well as skip counting by 2's, 5's and/or 10's). We also used our daily number to talk about place value and spelling the number words. Even Leila is now counting to 100 with help and knows some of the general concepts behind place value.
As we got closer to 100 I started thinking about what I could do to make this achievement special, homeschool-style. Here's what I came up with:
We started off the day with a special breakfast. I almost never cook breakfast - we're doing good to get cereal served up and eaten in a timely manner - but I decided to try an idea I've been wanting to use from Pinterest:
Apple Ring Pancakes. I also made some "line" pancakes for 1's and used the apple ring pancakes for 0's to lay out 100 on their plates. We joked that they were eating 100 pancakes. :)
After breakfast we had a brief morning meeting where we had a big ceremony to fill in our various boards where we have been counting up to 100. We counted in all the ways we know... 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. At the end of this amazing display of counting I presented each of them with a crown to decorate. Each crown said "______ is 100 days smarter!" It was exciting stuff, let me tell you!
Next up was math. But not regular math, 100th Day math. I gave each child a 0-100 grid and 4 crayons: red, blue, green, and yellow. I explained that I had hidden star stickers all over the school room. Each star was numbered 0-100. Their job was to find a sticker, look at the number on the sticker, find the corresponding number on their charts, and color the square to match the sticker. The colors made a pattern on the chart. They LOVED this activity. Benj attacked the project very systematically, making his way around the room methodically, filling in each square as he went. It took him about 35 minutes to fill in his entire chart perfectly. Talia (as expected) was a bit more haphazard, flitting from one side of the room to the other, filling in random squares here and there. She made a few mistakes with this method, but had just as much fun. Leila loved this for about the first 15-20 minutes, then wandered around for the next 10 minutes ("I'm just going to take a little break, Mommy"), and ended up happily coloring her chart randomly.
Our writing assignment was to complete "
My 100 Book," filling in the blanks to complete various 100-related sentences. Here are the (sometimes quite humorous) results of that project:
My 100 Book by Benj
If I had $100 I would buy Lego Star Wars.
I would never eat 100 apples.
I wish I had 100 toy cars.
I'm glad I don't have 100 sizzres (scissors).
I would eat 100 raisins.
In 100 years I will look like this.
My 100 Book by Talia
If I had $100 I would buy a $100 princess fishing pole.
I would never eat 100 cupcakes.
I wish I had 100 dresses.
I'm glad I don't have 100 dogs.
I would eat 100 raisins.
In 100 years I will look like this.
My 100 Book by Leila
If I had $100 I would buy a princess seat.
I would never eat 100 potatoes.
I wish I had 100 windows.
I'm glad I don't have 100 Legos.
I would eat 100 M&Ms.
In 100 years I will look like this.
Next I announced that we were going to spend some time reading and that we were going to set a goal: Each of us was going to try to read for 100 minutes before the end of the day. I printed off a
thermometer template and we colored in a section for every 10 minutes we read. I let them choose whatever they wanted to read. We got quilts, blankets, stuffed animals, and pillows and spent the next 30 minutes reading, Benj & Talia silently, me reading aloud to Leila.
While I went to make lunch I had the kids work on a project that proved to be too ambitious for one day, even though it sounded fun. I gave them our old magazine box and asked them to cut out 100 words they know how to read and paste them in a collage. (Leila just cut out things she likes.) The big kids each got about 20-30 words cut out before we quit for lunch.
For lunch I made them each a cup of trail mix with 100 pieces in it (raisins, chex, cheerios for the girls, and chocolate chips). I served this with celery sticks and a cup of peanut butter (sunbutter) for dipping. The kids love to have "ants on a log" for lunch, so I guess this was a take-off on that.
During lunch I read from our read-aloud book to them, which gave us 30 more minutes towards our goal. By this time we were getting a little weary of our celebration so I skipped my final planned academic activity (100 words I know how to write/spell) and went straight for our final fun activity, putting together 100-piece puzzles. We each picked a puzzle to work on alone. The first person to finish was to pick someone else to help, and so on, until everyone's puzzles were complete, which added in just a bit of friendly competition.
During rest time the kids each read for 20 more minutes. When Seth got home we finished out our day with dinner (no 100 theme - I was out of ideas!) and cupcakes. I didn't get fancy, just piped "100" on the top with icing. Our final activity for the night was our nightly reading from the Chronicles of Narnia, completing our 100 minutes of reading.
The kids loved 100th Day. Although I had told them we were going to have a special celebration I think they were expecting more like a "cupcakes and it's over" kind of thing. They told me over and over how much fun they had. I definitely do NOT have what it takes to put this much energy into school every day, but it was so worth it to see my kids enjoy their day so much.
So, we've survived 100 days. Here goes the last 80. :)
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