Many schools have a special celebration on the 100th day of school. At our school, the teachers use the 100th day to help reinforce math concepts and each kindergartener brings in 100 small items.
This math counting activity teaches kids how 100 is the same as 10 groups of 10.
I figured the other kids would bring in cereal or beans, so we settled on popcorn. My son happened to be home from school on the 98th day so we used the time to make make counting to 100 a fun way to spend the afternoon.
I put down a large piece of newsprint and drew 10 long ovals.
Side note: enjoy my grievous spelling error and be amused by the way I "fixed" it in all these photos using my friend, Picmonkey.
Just for fun I started pouring out the popcorn and asked my son to tell me when he thought there were 100 kernals kernels.
As you can see by the enormous pile on the right hand side of the table, he rather overestimated.
We counted together 10 rows of ten kernals kernels. He has a tendency to count too fast so I made sure he touched each kernal kernel as he counted to 100. It was a good way to exercise his fine motor muscles, too.
When he saw the leftovers, he declared, "I guess I was wrong!" Indeed.
He scooped his 100 kernals kernels – a tiny little pile compared to his original estimation – into a baggie to take to school.
I got out a funnel because I thought it would be fun for him to scoop them back into the jar. He liked the idea, but the funnel wasn't big enough so we had to abandon that part.
The sad part of writing this post is that my son ended up sick all week long and didn't get to take his 100 popcorn kernals kernels to the class party. Boo.
Have you had the 100th day of school yet? Did your child do a project? What was it?
Natalie AfterschoolForSmartyPants says
Ugh, sorry that New Kid got sick and missed the party! Love the activity you designed for him. We only have 100th day for K grade, then it becomes routine, I guess 🙂
Jillian says
Just want to say I ADORE you! Thank you for making me smile. 🙂 Spelling errors in pics are the worst and you handled it brilliantly.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Ha Ha! Just keeping it real.
MaryAnne says
I love your 100th day activity, but being sick is no fun!
MaryAnne says
Oh, and I forgot to share our projects. Emma made 20 plates of food that each had one bean, three grains of rice, and one piece of felt to represent cheese on them - because my kids' favorite food is beans, rice, and cheese. Johnny put the flags of 100 countries on a map, which was a fun project but I felt guilty about the countries we left off.
Emma says
Before this year, I always thought counting to 100 would be so boring for kids. But this is the first year my daughter's school has celebrated the 100th day of school and she gets a kick out of counting to 100. (P.S. Love your spelling correction method. To be honest, if you hadn't pointed out the mistake, I likely wouldn't have even noticed, lol!)