100 (Now 111!) Days Smarter!

We celebrated our 100th day two weeks ago with a very special day filled with learning and fun! We began with the hunt for 100 Hershey Kisses.

Next, I organized eight different learning rotations for the students to enjoy. Each student received a passport for the day to help keep track of the activities they completed. The stations included:

100 Licks!

Students predicted how many licks it would take to get to the middle of their mini-Tootsie Pop.

Would you believe it took more than 100 licks for most of the students?!

100 chart puzzle

Next up was a custom 100 chart puzzle I created for each student. I differentiated these puzzles by cutting the 100 chart into a certain number of pieces that best met the needs of each student. They LOVED this activity, and I put the puzzles in baggies for students to take home and to use over and over again!

Students made a 100th-day crown. They used stickers to make ten groups of ten. I love how these turned out!

Students used polka dot daubers to make 100 gumballs.

Students linked numbers zero-100 together in order from least to greatest.

Using ten groups of ten different colored pony beads, students made a festive necklace.

But the surprise favorite was building with 100 cups!

Students brought in collections of 100 items. There was a fun variety of collections!

But my favorite 100th-day activity this year was the writing activity and the aged-photo I created to go along with it!

I used the app AgingBooth to make each students’ 100-year-old photo.

 

Ice Fishing

It has been chilly for Santa Barbara recently, so the kindergarteners did some ice fishing. They fished for short vowel and long vowel words!

Once students had multiple fish, they put them into ABC order.

There was excitement all around! Students asked to be able to go ice fishing during Choice Time….nothing tells me that an activity is a winner like students wanting to play with it during Choice Time!

 

Glowing Under the Sea!

We went diving into our new ocean unit! I wanted to make the first day of this unit BIG, so I went with a glow-in-the-dark theme…like the bioluminescent animals in the midnight zone! I painted coral reef backgrounds. The students had made glow-in-the-dark jellies in art class last week that I had planned to use as part of the display.

I recorded students’ reactions as they entered the classroom when they arrived at school.  They were so surprised that almost every student was silent! After their outside playtime, I recorded again as they all entered the classroom together.  THIS was the reaction I was originally expecting!

I planned different activities….each activity had a glow-in-the-dark component. I displayed the rotation of activities on the SmartBoard. Students knew which group they were a part of according to the sea animal on their headband.

Here is a closer look at the activities:

Students searched the room for sea animals with pictures on them. They then spelled the words on their activity sheet using a highlighter.

Using a glow-in-the-dark ruler, students measured sea creatures and recorded their answers in inches. They again used a highlighter to record their answers.

Building items found under the sea using glow-in-the-dark rubber bands and geoboards was a hit!

There were many fun designs.

Coloring CVC words using neon crayons was fun as well.

Students identified 3D shapes, including the number of faces and vertices each shape has.

Students strengthened spatial awareness and practiced identifying shapes by building sea animals with pattern blocks.

The final activity was using glow-in-the-dark perler beads to make an ocean animal. Glow-in-the-dark perler beads?! Who knew?! This activities is a great one for strengthening fine motor.

 

We had so much fun learning in the midnight zone. I was impressed with how well the kindergarteners focused in the glowing classroom. What a special day!