What a Fun 100's Day We Had and an EASY way to make a Fruit Loop necklace!

We celebrated our 100th day of school today; well....... it wasn't really our 100th day....... It actually was our 104th day, but because our 100th day fell on our circus performance day, we postponed our celebration until today.  I have been doing 100 day celebrations for EVER and they have always been CRAAAAZY! I have always been exhausted at the end of the day and would collapse into my chair at the end of the day not at all excited about the next 100th day.

But this year........ things were different........ First of all, because we postponed the official day, we had some time to actually plan and prepare. Most importantly, though, is the fact that I spent some time reading and researching how other teachers celebrated their 100th day of school. I found ideas that I liked and refined them into something that would work for my kiddos.

The first change I made was to use Erica Bohrer's MY 100th DAY COUNTING MAT. This was such an awesome way to organize the 100 items that the kids sent to school! As they were working, I heard conversations such as this, "Why do I have 2 left over? "Maybe you should count your piles again and see if you have 10 in each one." "Oh, yea, I only have 8 in this pile!" Wow - what amazing math talk!

The second most exciting change was our Fruit Loop necklace. I have been trying for YEARS to find a way to make this activity more user friendly. I have tried this necklace so many ways throughout the years; yarn with the ends taped, plastic string, cotton string.... all of these ended up being so frustrating for my little kinders as well as me! If they could get the Fruit Loops through the string, then they would lose count, get frustrated, and give up. So this year ..... TA DA!!!! I found a way that worked wonderfully and my kinders were able to do most of it entirely by themselves - woo hoo!

Here is what we did.....
I cut craft stems in half and the children placed one stem in each circle on their counting mat. This was the first set of 10. Then they added 10 Fruit Loops to each stem. When they had completed each stem, we twisted them together and VOILA - a Fruit Loop necklace with no tears and 100 Fruit Loops! ALL my kinders completed this necklace and that is the first time in 17 years that has happened!

I also changed our 100 day masks. I used a cute border from Ashley Hughes and used Word Art to add the number 100 to the center. I printed this onto cardstock and attached it to a craft stick with clear tape. My kiddos attached buttons, sequins, rhinestones, and feathers to their masks. Cute!

My kiddos also wrote about what they would do with $100 (a lot of ipad touches written about) and 100 days ago, I didn't know..... but now I do....... stories. They made the cutest "Here is What I Will Look Like When I am 100 Years" portraits which I will share in another post.

Have a great rest of the week!

Blessings, Cindy