Hip, hip, hooray! It’s the 100th day!
The 100th day of school is a special milestone for every upper elementary student. It’s a special time to celebrate the hard work and dedication that students have put in throughout the year. Are you thinking…but I don’t teach Kindergarten, so how can I make the 100th day of school memorable? Or, what can I do that will still create quality learning? Here are 7 ideas to get you started!
- STEM with 100 items
One of my favorite ways to celebrate the 100th day is with STEM activities! It’s a great time for students to have hands-on and engaging learning while covering the engineering design process! Want something already created? Grab my 100th-day STEM Challenges FREEBIE!
- 100 Word Story
Challenge your students to write a story with exactly 100 words! This will help them practice their writing skills and be able to revise to meet the exact word count. Bonus points if you can have them type it and do a word count!
- Dollar Words
One of my favorite read-aloud books for this time of year is Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea. In the story, the teacher introduces the class to a special math project titled Dollar Words. The students have to work together to try and come up with a list of words that add up to 100 (or $1.00) based on alphabet letters assigned to numbers. A= 1; B= 2; C= 3; D=4, etc.
- 100 Seconds Challenge
Need some movement for your students? Challenge them to complete physical activities throughout the day in 100 seconds. How many jumping jacks can you do in 100 seconds? Sit-ups? Lunges? You can come up with all sorts of ideas or have the students share out exercises to complete for the 100th day!
- Letter to Future Self
I have two different ideas for you for this particular activity! You can have the students write a letter to their future selves in 100 days. You could make it 100 calendar days or 100 school days. I like to keep it very open-ended and let the students choose what they want to write to their future selves.
If you teach 5th grade, it is actually their 1000th day of school since Kindergarten. I have my students write a letter to their future selves in 1000 days. Again, you could choose calendar or school days. I like to have them write to their future selves in 1000 school days because that is their junior year of high school.
Bonus idea: have them practice addressing an envelope to themselves and mail it to their homes!
- In 100 years…
You can also have the students think beyond the foreseeable future and write or record a video message. Have the students answer this question: What will the world be like in 100 years? It would also be fun to add an artistic element for the students to draw what they think it will be like. Jetsons, anyone?
- 100 years ago…
Need to cover some History or Social Studies content? Students can do a mini-research project about what the world was like 100 years ago. What types of things have changed over time? You could even take it a step further and have them write about how the world might be different if we didn’t have inventions from 100 years ago. The possibilities could be endless!
100th Day of School Wrap-Up
The 100th day of school is not just for little kids! Even upper elementary students are still kids and want to have fun! These ideas are ways you can get started while still incorporating quality content for learning!
2 Responses
Love these reading activities! Thank you so much for sharing these. These are good ideas that also allow the students to practice and enhance their learning.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Love this journey for you!