100th Day of 3rd Grade

This week was completely exhausting but so much fun. I had to gather up my strength to post about it. My student teacher joined us for her first full week, we had a field trip, the 100th day of school and Valentine's day all in the same week!

Next to the last day of school the 100th day is my favorite day of the year for several reasons. #1 It means we only have 80  more days left (woohoo)! #2 We have accomplished so much and it's cause for a celebration. I love a good reason to celebrate. The theme for our day was "100 Days Smarter" and everything we did centered around all that we have learned in the first 100 days we have spent together.

I welcomed each student at the door with a 100th Day of School pencil that I ordered from Really Good Stuff.

We began the day by discussing how we have learned to work cooperatively together. Our first activity of the day was to work together cooperatively and put together 100 piece puzzles. I separated the class into girls and boys and gave each group a different puzzle. I was really excited to see how this was going to work out because I have a few BIG personalities in my room, boys and girls. In the end it was the boys who pulled it together first.

 
 


Next we brainstormed 100 things that we have learned in 3rd grade. Interestingly enough there were many things that were left off. It's as if the kids remember everything we learned at the beginning of the year and what we are currently working on but the kids seemed to have a hard time remembering any of the stuff we learned in November/December. I guess they were all too focused on Santa Claus.

After that we took a break to go to Music and lunch but there was much more fun to be had when the students returned for the second half of the day. Waiting for the kiddos on their desks when they came back from lunch were 100th day snacks on all of the desks.

To take a break from our regular reading routine the students had pledged to read 100 books as a class. More teamwork, yes! What kind of teacher would I be if I didn't turn this into a math/problem solving lesson as well. The students problem solved to figure out how many books each child had to read in order for us to reach our goal if we had 20 students. Of course being the third grade thinkers that they are, they came up with 5 books each. So we spent our time reading around the room until we reached our goal.

Writing for the day of course was about being 100! I had taken everyone's pictures using an aging app (they had no idea what I was doing) and then presented them with the pictures. After a fit of giggles and time to chat an share with our classmates, the kids got down to the business of sharing what their life is like at 100 years old. I got a great laugh out of these. A few married and had kids but apparently most of the boys plan to live with their mom!

Our last activity of the day was math. The students had to come up with 100 ways to make 100. I think I liked this activity the best. The kids learned very quickly that if they didn't move fast enough or think creatively their problem was already taken on the poster and they would have to go back to square one. It made me chuckle but was a good lesson for them.

Everyone worked so hard all day that they totally earned their 100th Day of School prize: 100 gummy bears each! Of course the deal was that they had to take them home to enjoy with their families. I didn't pack a bag from myself but I may or may not have snacked on a few of the gummy bears as I put the bags together :)

I was COMPLETELY pooped after this nonstop day of celebrating! Thankfully I have a day to recuperate before I get ready for our Valentine's Day celebration.