Celebrating 100 days of school

In this blog post I wanted to explore the ‘100 days of school’ celebration so many of us organise at school.

I love 100 days for a few reasons:

1. It promotes counting
2. The Foundation students LOVE it (and look super cute dressed as 100 year olds!)
3. It can be provide a gentle introduction to the idea of grouping in tens- the foundation of our place value system
4. It is a daily routine that we can use in our class- I love routines! I love them because it makes everything stable and predictable and I think this is something that is really important for our little Foundation students who are starting school where everything is new!

But I wanted to propose an idea… I think 100 days of schools should be extended into Year 1 and possibly Year 2… now I’m not talking about having a big production like many of us do in Foundation. But instead, a low key, no bells and whistles version.

Why? Because I think that many Foundation students are not ready to see the grouping in tens ideas that underpins the count to 100 days. Let’s face it, for many it takes until Term 3 for them to really ‘get’ how school works- let alone understand why/how we are counting days.

BUT in Year 1 and 2 they are ready for this… in the curriculum we are formally introducing them to place value, and so this makes it the perfect routine to continue. 

For Year ones, I suggest starting back at 0, but for Year 2 you might pose a problem at the start of the year… I wonder how many days you have been at school? They can investigate this and then you can start counting from that number.

It is important in Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 to use some sort of material to represent the count, so it might be you are crossing off days on tens frames, or you are adding icy pole sticks into a cups…whatever it is focus on that structure of 10 ones in 1 ten.

There are so many great activities you can do with 100 days- this is a book I love as it is full of ideas!

How does your school celebrate 100 days?