Happy 100 Day.... Finally!

I was starting to wonder if we'd ever make it to 100 days this year with all of the snow we've had!  Our 100th day was supposed to be Feb. 12 but snow days have pushed it back so that we finally reached it 6 days later!  And this morning, we woke up to a few more inches of snow overnight that had iced over because, although my little town is pretty good about plowing, our whole state is in a salt shortage!  So we did end up with a 90 minute delay, but that's ok... we made it!

It is super cool to bundle those 100 straws, isn't it?  Firsties LOVE that!

In my school, our half day kindergartens really do up 100 Day.  All the parents come in and they have this huge party in the cafeteria with banners and balloons and cupcakes.. it's a Big. Thing. And when I say Big Thing, I mean the kind of wonderful thing that we so rarely get to stop and do; the kind of thing those kids will remember forever.  They LOVE it.
And then they come to first grade and they expect another big party. We don't quite roll like that, but we do find ways to make the day extra special!
First... I ordered this amazing 100 Day shirt (with super sparkly silver tally marks!) from tea and coffee on TpT, whose store is just full of adorable hard goods. They carry adult sizes only in the store but were SUPER accomodating when I asked about having a kiddie size made for my own sweet lil first grader. I don't teach in the district where we live, so we're not in the same school, but we ended up having the same 100th day!

LOVING our 100 day shirts!  Got so many compliments!

When my kiddies came in with the delay, it was already 10:15, almost snack time! Their first job was to write 100 words. Most of them jumped right in. For those who seemed to find the task a little more daunting, there was the dangling carrot... it was their ticket to our special 100 Day snack!  This great activity came from the amazing freebie My Favorite 100 Day Activities by Carrie's Creations on TpT.  It's just one of many awesome 100 Day activities in her free pack!

Love how they started with "owls" - we are the Wise Owls - and then pill bugs and bess beetles that we are studying in science!

Awesome words!  Not just word wall words, lots of our word study words and other great ideas!

This year, I have no food allergies.  NONE.  I shouldn't say that too loudly, or I know I'll get a new kiddie with a bunch... which isn't all that unlikely since I had one student move over Christmas break and another one moving this Thursday.  I'm sure I'm up for the next new firstie!  Anyway, with my current lack of allergies, we lived it up with a 100 Day trail mix!

My kiddies got to pick 10 each of Cheerios, Kix, popcorn, Scrabble Cheeze Its, chocolate chips, Swedish fish, goldfish crackers, white chocolate chips, candy hearts, and pretzel sticks.  Yummy!

After snack, I did something I feel like I rarely get to do but wish I could do more often: I gave the kids control over what they wanted to do. They got a 100 Day Choice Board that listed all of their choices, put it on a clipboard, and off they went to activities set up all around the room.  They just had to color in each box as they finished an activity. I didn't tell them where to go or for how long.  Our school doesn't really utilize centers in first grade, so I never really know how this will go, but it was awesome!

I made the choice board super quickly in Power Point last night.  I was going to add in the activities and print it this morning, but with the delay, I didn't have time to do that once I set up the activities, so I just handwrote them. And the kids totally balked at my unprofessionalism and refused to do it.  Hehe, just kidding.  My kiddies were over the moon with the choice board! Since we had already done "I can write 100 words" and had our "100 yummy things snack", they got to color in two boxes right away.  Click here for a blank copy.
So here were some of their choice board choices:

Estimating how many things were in each bucket

What's Missing?  LOVE this game - Jennifer White from First Grade Blue Skies did a wonderful recent blog post on Exploring Numbers to 120, which included this fantastic freebie.  The kids play in pairs and one covers up 10 spots on the 120 board and then the other has to "guess" what numbers they are by looking at the board and noticing their positions.  They record the numbers on the recording sheet included, then take off the markers to check.  She used adorable little erasers from Target, which I actually tried to buy yesterday but they didn't have any.  I used counter bears instead!

Coloring 100th Day bookmarks was a popular choice.  I laminated them during lunchtime.

The bookmarks were also from Carrie's Creations My Favorite 100 Day Activities

Working on some 100 piece puzzles = instant teamwork!

Making Words out of "hundred days" is a freebie from Primary Reading Party

I love this Making Words activity because her freebie includes a couple of different options for the cutouts ("hundred", "hundred days", or "one hundred") and she includes separate spaces for 2, 3, 4, and 5+ letter words.  Love her layout!  It was great for my kids.

Also from Carrie's 100 Day pack!

"When I am 100 years old, I will... find a gigantic house and make new clothes and make BIG meals and meatballs with sauce."  So darn cute!  She told me, "When I'm 100 I'll be a grownup!"  Wonder how old she thinks I am...? :)

Next we shared the 100 Day Collections that they had brought in for homework and then sorted them with the help of this cute sorting mat, again from Carrie's pack (Can you tell I loved it?  Go download it now!)

Of course, some collections just didn't fit as neatly onto one little sheet.  No worries!  If a student's collection didn't fit, I just had them cut up the boxes, spread them out, and sort!

We finished our day with Cait Jacob from Sliding into First's 100 Day Chart mystery picture activity. It includes color coded number cards to hide around the room, then the kiddies take a 100 chart and color the numbers in as they find them to reveal a secret 100 Day message!  They LOVED it!

I used to have a HUGE, comfy chair here.  Then the state said no more upholstered furniture.
Now I have a very sad, ripped little chair.  Boo.  But it does the job until I find something better!

Finally, I am very happy to report after my earlier post about our 100 Acts of Kindness project, that the kids did a beautiful job completing over 100 acts of kindness before Feb. 14, as challenged!  Here is our bulletin board:

So pretty!  I hope you have... or had... a wonderful 100th day!