100th Day of School Festivities

  I hope you have more than a few moments to peruse this posting!  My phone was not far away from me all day long on Friday.  Why, you ask?  Because there were so many 100th day activities to catch in action with my camera!  So sit back, and enjoy this post!  The kids certainly enjoyed our day!

  Our festivities began mid morning.  The kids went to three stations to complete fun 100th day themed activities.  In one station, they made their '100' hats!  Most decorated their hats with a theme as well... 100 hearts, polka dots, the number '100', and more.

   The second station involved writing.  One page asked the children to draw a picture of themselves inside a 100 dollar bill and write about what they would buy with $100 and why.  The second page asked them to draw a picture of themselves at 100 years old and write about how their life would be when they turn 100 years old.

  The third activity involved the 100 small objects brought from home!  First, they weighed their objects against ceramic tiles in a balance scale.  Then, they counted how many tiles it took to balance the scale against their objects. Next, they divided their objects into groups of ten, and counted how many tens their 100 objects made.  Of course, they predicted correctly that 100 objects made 10 tens!

  Here are some photos of these three stations:

Jayden, Maddy, Emily, Logan and Reece weigh their objects in balance scales.

Emily, Reece and Ethan weigh items against ceramic tiles.

Ethan, Sierra, Jayden and Maddy use the balance scales to measure against ceramic tiles.

Leah cuts out her 100 hat after tracing the template. Tyler takes a break from his 100 hat to watch the kids using the balance scales.  Uriel and Deegan work on 100 writing.

Ki, Collin, Tanner, Kylee and Page work on their 100 hats!

Talon and Jayla are writing their 100 stories.

Ethan divides his Lego pieces into groups of ten.

Reece divides his small wooden sticks into piles of ten.

Jayden divides her cereal and Sierra her beads into groups of ten.

Emily uses the rug to sort her pennies into ten-groups.

Logan and his marbles in piles of ten.

Sean and Uriel use ceramic tiles against objects from home in the balance scales.

Bailey determines that his scale is balanced, and now has to count the tiles.

Miley tries on her 100 hat as Mrs. Stork helps Reece put his together.

Ki, Collin, Tanner work on their 100 stories as Page puts her objects away after weighing them.

Sierra, Logan and Ethan work on decorating and putting their 100 hats together.

Talon sorts his beads into groups of ten after weighing them.

Bailey and Jayla sort their 100 objects into groups of ten.

Deegan sorts his Lego pieces into groups of ten.

Bailey is working on his 10 piles of ten.

Sean just begins putting his marbles into piles of ten.

Uriel borrows a friend's 100 marbles to weigh and sort into groups of ten.

The third group for weighing:  Tanner, Molly, Kylee, Leah, Tyler, Miley, Ki and Collin.

Another photo of group 3 for weight.

Ethan concentrates on his 100-themed stories.

Talon, Bailey, Uriel and Logan work on their 100 hats.

Maddy, Sierra, Emily and Deegan work on stories and hats.

Ki sorts his square objects into piles of ten.

Collin makes piles of ten with his sports cards.

  Later in the morning, awards were given to students with exemplary attendance.  The first group of children have only missed ONE DAY of school, and were awarded certificates for attending school for 99 days!  Congratulations to the following students!

Collin, Ki, Deegan, Tyler, Molly and Reece

  The next three students have had 100 days of perfect attendance!  Wow! That is an amazing accomplishment!  Congratulations to the following three students!

Jayden, Jayla and Uriel

  The children each brought in a bag of 100 dry pieces to combine and make a special 100 day treat!  Here is our bowl of treats before being divided up into 22 bags!  Yum, Yum, Yum!

The "Red Group" enjoys their treats!  Talon, Molly, Bailey, Leah, Jayla and Logan

The "Purple Group" enjoys their treats:  Reece, Miley, Tyler, Ethan and Uriel

The "Green Group" enjoys their treat:  Sierra, Maddy, Collin, Emily and Deegan

The "Blue Group" enjoys their treats:  Ki, Jayden, Tanner, Kylee, Sean and Page.

  Some of the children WORE 100-themed clothing or objects today!  Special T-shirts were made, or necklaces or bracelets were worn.  Great job to those who made this extra effort!

Emily, Reece, Ethan, Talon, Kylee, Collin, Maddy, Seirra, and Sean

 Later in the afternoon, we divided into teams of four.  Each team was given 100 Dixie Cups.  The instructions were to create a sculpture or tower together!  I was impressed that every team was encouraging to each other and no one got upset with a team mate when towers collapsed!  It was fun to listen in to the discussions about what to make, how to go about it, and the problem solving when sculptures collapsed and had to be rebuilt! Each group did a wonderful job!

Emily, Jayla, Uriel and Reece

Deegan, Maddy, Bailey and Collin

Ki, Leah, Logan and Page

Ethan, Miley, Seirra and Talon

Tanner, Sean, Kylee, Molly and Kylee

Kylee, Jayden, Molly, Sean and Tanner show off their tower.

Ethan, Miley, Talon and Sierra are proud of their creation.

Maddy, Bailey, Collin and Deegan are proud of their work!

Reece, Uriel, Jayla and Emily show off their pyramid.

Second cup creation for Bailey, Collin, Deegan and Maddy.

Second creation for Tanner, Sean, Jayden, Kylee and Molly.

After many collapses, this team never gave up!  Ki, Leah, Logan and Page proudly show off their Dixie Cup creation!

  Our day would not be complete without one last activity.  Each team chose a 100 piece puzzle to try to complete.  Each team had a 10-minute head start, and then Mrs. Ferrell began a 100 piece puzzle by herself.  There was a big competition to try to beat Mrs. Ferrell.  What do you think happened?  You'll have to ask your child! 

  I feel a need to get on my soap box for a teachable moment.  Very few of the children had any idea about how to do a puzzle.  In fact, I heard multiple negative comments... 'I'm not good at puzzles', 'I don't really like to do puzzles', and many children chose to give up rather than make any attempt at all to help their team.  In addition, after the contest, we had a good conversation about sportsmanship.  Sadly, many children made comments such as 'Mrs. Ferrell has an easier puzzle', or 'She's done that puzzle before', or 'Her puzzle is way easier than ours.'  Although I did hear a few positive comments, they were outnumbered by the negative ones by far.

  Children today spend much of their free time playing video games or watching television or movies.  Why not invest in family time doing puzzles, playing board games, or hiking/playing outside?  The benefits far outweigh the alternatives, and naturally 'winning' or 'losing' against a family member at a game builds character and good sportsmanship not to mention all of the benefits for their bodies and minds!  Thank you... I will leave my soap box now.  

Miley, Ethan, Sierra and Talon

Kylee, Molly, Jayden, Sean and Tanner

Jayla Uriel, Reece and Emily

Deegan, Collin, Bailey and Maddy.  And congratulations to this team for completing their puzzle! 

Leah, Ki, Logan and Page

  It was a wonderful day of celebrating the '100 way' in first grade!  Hopefully memories of fun along with learning occurred on this special day.   And our blog post would not be complete without...

                                                              THE FUNNY PICTURE!