101st Day of School Ideas

Probably like you, I did the standard 100th Day of School celebration for many…many years.  But one year I started hosting a 101st Day of School celebration, and I think you’d love one too!

When I taught first grade I realized that so many of the kiddos had already done the 100th day in Preschool and Kindergarten, and I wanted to do something special for them.

That year I began hosting a 101st Day of School celebration— Dalmatian Style! And boy was it fun!  I invited my students to dress like Dalmatians!  Here are a few of those precious babies all dressed up!

Their parents really went above and beyond with their costumes.  Some were store-bought and some were homemade.  They were all so cute!

Getting Everything Set Up

I wanted our 101st Day of School to be fun and engaging.  But I also wanted to cover lots of academic content and have some great skills review.

I set up 8 different stations around the room and had a parapro, one parent volunteer, plus myself to manage them.  Students took a clipboard with a station checklist with them and checked off each station as they completed it.

  Several of the stations had recording pages or work to complete, while a few of the stations involved hands on fun.

I asked parents to send in the snack items, and I requested specifically what I wanted for our day: Cheez Its, Mini Marshmallows, Goldfish, Raisins, and other foods that could easily be counted and placed in groups of 10.

Prepping the 101st Day Stations

I used Dollar Tree buckets to hold the directions, any tools like dice, and the printables that went with that station. I copied instruction cards on colorful card stock so they would be easy to spot when the children got to that station.

To complete these stations you’ll need the following materials:

• crayons
• dice
• linking cubes (at least 101!)
• pencils
• water droppers and a bowl of water
• a timer or stopwatch
• pennies and dimes
• baggies with exactly 101 Legos in them

101st Day of School  Stations

Here are the stations I set up for our fun day.

1.  Race to 101 (101 Frame): Students roll two die and add them together.  Then they color in that number of spaces on the 101’s chart.  They keep playing until they reach 101.
2. 101 Snack Mat:  Students place 10 of each snack food in one of the circles on the snack mat.  Then they add one extra item to the last circle.  They have a snack of 101 things to enjoy!
3. Piggy Bank Push (Trading Pennies for Dimes to Save up $1.01): Students roll dice and count out that many pennies.  When they have ten pennies, they trade them for a dime.  They keep playing until the reach $1.01.
4. Getting Older (Writing and Drawing about When You are 101):  These are hilarious.  Students complete the page to show what their lives will be like when they’re 101.  They also draw a picture of themselves.  I actually used the Aging App and printed out an “elderly” picture of my kiddos.  They thought this was hilarious!
5. Jazzercise (101 Exercises): Students complete 10 exercises at a time until they reach 101 (jumping jacks, lunges, push ups, etc.)…all while timing themselves!
6. Drop in the Bucket (Measuring the height of 101 drops of water):  Students use an eye dropper or pipette to place 101 drops of water on something.
7. Lego Land (build something with 101 legos):  Students get a bag of exactly 101 legos and must create something with them.
8. Tall Tower (Are you taller or shorter than a tower of 101 linking cubes?):  Students count out 101 unifix or linking cubes by putting them in ten groups of ten.  Then they link them together and add one more to have 101.  They lay the cubes out on the floor and see which is taller–101 cubes…or them?

Here’s a peek at some of the fun we had in stations!

 

I have one student who keeps me in stitches with her dry wit.  Here was her response to this writing prompt:

Translation:  “When I am 101 I will be dead, Sonny!”

Here’s an example of how we used the Aging Booth photo app and printed out their pictures to paste on these response pages.  They were truly shocked by their appearance with jowls and wrinkles!  LOL

Looking for an easy Dalmatian costume idea?  Use black Duck Tape on a white shirt, and make ears out of faux fur and a headband! Isn’t this the cutest costume?

If you’re interested in having a 101st Day of School Celebration with your students, check out this packet on TPT:

Pin the image below so you can always find this post!