100th day of school party

100 medication thingies (the empty plastic-foil that you
get after you've pushed out the tablet.

Last year we discovered yet another American celebration we had never heard of. Lower primary students have a special celebration on the 100th day of school. It is only a recent phenomenon, apparently it was first suggested in an education newsletter in the early '80s.


Yesterday kindergarten and grade one celebrated it at CAJ. They did a lot of activities involving the number 100. Each had to bring in a collection of 100 things and they did a round of different activities involving 100s. Like drawing a picture of what they might look like when they turn 100! 

Other 100 things collected: paper clips, silly bands, biscuits
and Lego pieces.

In the picture with the orange paper they are looking at a 100th day poem, and highlighting all the "100" as well as all the rhyming words. After that they helped us collect 100 words on a poster under different categories such as "toys", "shapes", and "pets". I couldn't believe the intensity of the girls as they found there was a category for "friends". They wanted to know who wrote which names and then they wanted to know how their friends' names were spelt so they could write those down.

I helped out with running a couple of the groups and it turned out to be a good morning. Not much responsibility and fairly low-key. I got to chat with some of the other mums. I asked my Indian and Thai friends if they count 100 days of school in their countries, and they said, "No." In fact the American mums I've spoken to cannot remember doing it as a child either (presumably it took a while for it to take off in popularity in the '80s.) But it seems to be fun, and another way to include maths into the curriculum in a way that isn't so bookish.


It wasn't mentioned, but I realise that this means we are well over halfway through the school year. How did that happen? There are less than 80 days of school left before it is summer holidays again. Arrrrggghhh.