100th Day Fun, Comparing and Contrasting and a Freebie Friday!

We completed our 100th Day of School and are officially 100 Days Smarter! Last year one of my teammates came in with the idea of “dressing like we are 100 years old!” Oh my word, what fun! If you have not yet tried it I suggest that you do because it makes the day that much more exciting! This is a bold statement…BUT…I think 100th day of school just might be my favorite day of the year! It is a riot seeing first graders dressed up as if they are old. Most of the little boys come in with eye-liner mustaches/beards and the little girls come in with gray hair, glasses, and older women looking clothes! It is too funny!

Our fabulous first grade team (although it may be hard to believe we are all in our twenties!)

The 100th day is jam packed with activities! As the end of the day quickly came and I began telling my kids (in my old woman voice) that we had to start getting ready to go home they all whined (a good whine) and said “but we don’t want to go home!” which of coarse warms my heart.

Looking back on the day some of my favorite activities include:

100th Day Crowns

My kids are obsessed with penguins so I couldn’t resist using them as much as possible to make this day special. Students were each given 10 penguins and were asked to count by 10s on each piece to get to 100, then they colored, cut and glued the penguins to create their 100th day crown!

In 100 seconds I can…

We put the timer on the SMART Board and as a class we completed many activities in 100 seconds. It was silent in the room as kids counted in their heads (this was the key to it being quiet!) how many times they could clap, blink, stand/sit, write their names, hop and do jumping jacks in 100 seconds!)

When I am 100 years old…

Look at that mustache! Being in a 1:1 classroom makes pictures that much better! Instead of drawing a picture for this writing activity students took a picture of themselves in Photo Booth and started typing about when they are 100 years old.

100th Day Mystery Number Hunt…

Penguins numbered 1-100 were put up all over our classroom…on cabinets, tables, word walls, everywhere!

Students then went on a hunt to find one mystery penguin that was left out…by marking every numbered penguin that they found on their number grid!

For all of these 100th Day Activities and many more please check out:

The 100th Day of School was a blast and I am sad to see it go but there are so many more fun days to come!

For a similar activity pack that is also common core aligned please check out my St. Patrick’s Day Activity Pack:

Comparing and contrasting is a skill that we are currently working on in first grade. It can definitely be a fun skill as kids love coming up with ideas to go inside a Venn-Diagram!
When introducing this new skill to the class I started by discussing things students are familiar with. In our classroom we used a basketball and a soccer ball. I wanted to start by using things students were able to see that had obvious similarities as well as obvious differences.

Students did a great job coming up with loads of ideas from color, to texture, to shape and size of the the two recreational balls. We were ready to move onto bigger and better things!

Friend Venn-Diagrams! Students loved working with their partners during reading centers to figure out similarities and differences. We did this as a laptop center and when students finished they recorded themselves talking about things they had in common with their peers.