The first 100 Days together is a HUGE celebration for students and teachers in elementary school and we love to make it a good time. Have you ever heard of celebrating with stations?! This engaging and easy setup is designed to deliver a fun and memorable day for your students that they won’t stop talking about!
However fun, this day can also be overwhelming and it requires a lot of thinking and preparation. I don’t know about you but the 100th day always tends to sneak up on me, and then it’s crunch time and I’m running around with no ducks in a row! So I asked myself, “How could I make this chaotic time special, but save myself some work and anxiety at the same time?” Insert 100th Day Celebration Stations! Students have such a blast and it gives me so much more time to go around and help students as they make their way through the stations, make memories, and actually enjoy this experience with them!
I’m going to share tons of fun, engaging, and easy ideas for making your 100th Day with students a day to remember!
Station Prep
The first thing people tend to think about when they hear the word stations is that it’s too much work or too much time to prep. While it will require some effort, there are things you can do to make it a little easier. When making all of the copies, I like to print directions, station signs, checklists, etc. on Astrobrights to make it easy to differentiate. I also like to laminate signs so that they can be reused each year to save time.
After making copies, I like to set up the stations with materials they’ll need for the activity. A great way to organize materials is by using multiple containers to keep items together and easy for students to see what is needed for each activity. It also makes cleaning up for transition way faster because everything has a designated place.
Once you have these prepped baskets of materials, along with your laminated signs, directions, and checklists, it can all be stored in a 100th day celebration box to be reused year after year. You’ll find that most materials are things we already have in the classroom so it makes it easy, low cost, and low prep to prepare for. Check out the setup below!
How it Works
On the big day, students will come in STOKED for the celebration.
We typically begin our day with our stations and they last a few hours, depending on what other activities you have planned, or how many stations you want students to rotate through.
Provide each student with their checklist stamp card and explain how each of the stations work for them. It usually doesn’t take long to explain and students understand the activities fairly quickly because they’re not too complicated. Plus, the bonus of this station step up is that you can be available for those students that may need more support!
Have students begin rotating stations, I usually pair students in groups of 3 or 4 depending on the number of students in the class. I assign students to a starting station and instruct them to rotate in chronological order. For example, if I started on station 5, I will go to station 6 next and so on. It’s pretty easy for students to grasp and they just have an absolute blast. After they visit each station, they get a stamp from me so they know which stations they’ve already been to and which ones they have left. HERE are the stamps I love to use!
Read below to see some of the engaging stations that truly make this day a day they will never forget!
100 Piece Paper Chain
I LOVE this station for so many reasons! First, it allows students to be reflective of what they learned throughout the year. I personally have students write things they learned over their 100 days in school, but you could absolutely change it to whatever prompt you want! The best part is when students are finished, you can attach all the chains together and have a beautiful and meaningful decoration to hang in the room! Double whammy!!
Write 100 Words
This is a fun AND challenging activity for students! Students are challenged to come up with as many words as they can while at this station. They can work together, use sound/word walls, or resources around the room to help! They sure do get creative and it’s SO much fun to see what words they come up with.
Read 100 Books
Always a wonderful activity to get students READING! They LOVE this activity and try to read as many books as they can! This activity is done throughout the day and also a station to ensure we can get to 100 books together. Normally, I create an anchor chart for students to record their own books (see pictures below).
Hide and Seek
Want students to practice identifying all their numbers through 100? Place the 0-100 cards in a pocket chart and hide one of the 100th day pictures behind one of the number cards! Students will work together to try and find one of the 100th day pictures hiding behind one of the cards. It’s such a great way to practice with numbers. You can even challenge students by having them say things like, “Let’s look behind the number that has 2 tens and 5 ones.” or “I think it’s behind the number that is 10 greater than 36.” It’s another easy way to differentiate and build fluidity with number sense.
100th Day Hide and Seek Pocket Chart Game
Race to 100
This is a super simple game that is TONS of fun! This is easily played with 1-2 students! All you need is a hundred chart, some dice, and writing utensil. Students can either play alone rolling the dice while trying to make it to 100, OR they can play as a pair and see who gets there first! They have so much fun with this game and get great practice counting!
Create with 100 Pieces
Want to see how creative your students are? Give them 100 pieces of ANYTHING! They can bring materials from home, you can use math manipulatives, erasers, etc. I mean the possibilities are endless! You could pick up a pack of 100 cups from Party City and have a BLAST! That’s right cups! In years past I’ve given students 100 cups and I LOVE seeing what they can create with 100 cups! This activity can be done collaboratively or individually!
HERE are some more easy and fun ways to celebrate and you can also read about even MORE stations we’ve done on this day!
These are just some of the fun station ideas you’ll find in the editable 100th day stations pack! I truly enjoyed creating an entire exciting experience for students, while giving you everything you need to plan an awesome day! Not only are these stations a BLAST for students, but they are easy to differentiate and make your own. You can also check out the jam packed 100th Day Bundle FULL of fun and easy ideas to make your day even more special. The Editable 100th Day Stations is also included FREE in the 100th Day Bundle!
I hope you enjoyed learning why I LOVE using stations to celebrate the 100th day! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the 100th Day FREEBIE! You will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.
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