100th Day Lessons Learned

Over winter break I made my 100th Day Pack and was pretty excited about using it with my class. I shared it with my grade level team on the condition that they give me honest feedback after using it. We celebrated the 100th day yesterday and after just a little scurrying around to find those last minute items we needed, we were ready to go! My little darlings were just too excited this week as their 100th day projects trickled in. We had some really "interesting" collections this year from army men to Q-tips. My favorite, of course, was 100 Box Tops!

I went around the room, snapping pics of the kiddos hard at work and having fun.

 They L.O.V.E.D those headbands! A couple kiddos had trouble keeping track of their 100 sticker counts, and one little genius had the idea to number each sticker with a sharpie. They really are 100 days smarter!

We had some trouble with the penny stack station, though. At lunch, my colleagues and I discussed some ways to make it work better. One smart teacher taped 100 pennies together. I had to think on my feet and decided to make a little "splint" with rulers to keep that stack steady.

For the most part, things went smoothly. There are always a few "oopsies" here and there. But I learned so much about product design by implementing this with my grade level. One lesson learned is that the adorable yellow frames just do not show up when printing in B & W. The roll, tally, and graph activity needed more lines on the graph and it IS really hard to stack 100 pennies. I made some adjustments to my product and now I'm offering it for 50% off until the end of January. Check out my store to get your copy at this steal of a price.

 Even though it was exhausting, it was all worth it when one of my little sweeties said, "This is the best day EVER!". Their writing was funny and sweet, they practiced some math skills, they listened to counting songs, read books, and had a great time. These are they days they'll remember most.

Have a great weekend everyone!