100th Day of School: COVID EDITION - Sweet 'N' Sauer Firsties

Let’s face it. We’re coming up on one of the HARDEST first 100 days of the school year. Schools trying to find their way after going completely remote, hybrid, or setting up social distanced classrooms has been challenging to say the least. But of course as educators we have adapted and totally rocked whatever format we’ve been given. We know that in these times more than ever, kids thrive for normalcy and routine. So, even with this insane school year… we can STILL have fun and support our students. In elementary settings, the 100th day of school is seen as a HUGE milestone for both students and teachers. Spending 100 days together and learning is HUGE and we should absolutely celebrate! No matter what your current classroom situation is in person, remote, or hybrid, I’ve got you COVERED for the 100th day! In this post, you’ll learn about some fun digital ways to celebrate with students AND some great ways to have some socially distanced fun while in the classroom together! Let’s get into some fun engaging ways we can do that!

Collaborative Digital Activities

Just because you can’t actually be together doesn’t mean you haven’t had a blast this year building connections and learning A LOT. If you are hybrid or completely remote and can’t physically be with your kiddos, there are still TONS of ways you can have fun together. So how can we get together and share what we’ve learned?! Queue the amazing tools of collaborative DIGITAL activities. Look below for some fun and engaging ways to share some of the favs from the first 100 days together!

100th Day Jamboard Freebie

Scavenger Hunt

Have you tried a digital scavenger hunt with your students yet? What a fun way to get together and build connections. This 100th Day themed hunt is perfect for distance learning with students at home. It can be displayed for the class AND each slide has a 100 second timer built in! All of the slides have fun things to hunt for around the house and there are even editable slides included for your own ideas! What a fun way to get kids up and moving. See some of the exciting items below.

Digital Scavenger Hunt

Would You Rather

Who doesn’t love the fun game of would you rather…. Now it’s digital! This is another fun collaborative activity that can be played with students. You can start your day with this activity or use it as a time filler throughout the day. The best part is you can totally add movement to this activity. You can have students jump or sit depending on their choice. You can have them do jumping jacks or run in place. That’s the beauty of this simple activity you can have it be as involved as you want but no matter what, kids have a blast! There are 20 different 100th Day prompts included with editable slides! See a few of the fun prompts below.

Would You Rather Activity

Happy Mail

Who doesn’t LOVE receiving mail?! Especially if it’s from our teacher! What a better way to celebrate than by sending students a sweet 100th Day package filled with goodies to share in the experience together?! Below you’ll find some fun ideas for creating a Happy 100th Day Pack for your students!

Below are just some of the fun things you can include in your students’ happy mail pack!

Bookmarks

Crowns

Certificates

100th Day Collection Paper

Puzzles

Celebration Bag

Crowns and Editable Certificates

Zoom!

Zoom to the rescue! How fun would it be to plan a HUGE celebration together?! More special than a normal school day together that’s for sure! Kids are already home so why not have your parents to join in the fun?! There are a number of different ways you could set up a special Zoom celebration. Here are a few! If you happen to send home some packages, you can print the link and stuff it in their happy mail letting them know the date and time of the event. Or since everything is already digital, you could use a virtual invitation found HERE!

Digital Invitation

Digital Activities

We know the 100th Day is FILLED with TONS of engaging activities! Well… who says we can’t still have those?! In this section, you’ll read about tons of engaging activities students can participate in that are completely DIGITAL! Let’s take a new spin on digital activities. Have you tried a digital choice board with students yet? To house all these engaging activities, I created a digital choice board with linked slides for students to easily navigate through ALL the engaging choices! See a video below of how the choice board works and the activities included.

Students can work through the 6 different categories of fun! Some of the activities include: Race to 100, 100th Day Writing, and 100 Chart Activities. It also features 100 second activities. There are 10 different activities students can complete! All with built in 100 second timers! Take a look at some of the different activities below!

Digital Choice Board

I love the idea of a digital choice board for so many reasons. One of the reasons is because it is so interactive for students. From typeable text boxes to linked slides, it makes it super easy for all students to navigate and HAVE FUN!

No matter what you decide to do… make it enjoyable for both you and your students. Do as little or as much as you want! But of course no matter what, this 100 days of school is like one we will HOPEFULLY never experience again. I believe this gives us more of a reason to celebrate and make it a special occasion to remember. And since we’re on the page of memorable, let me share an AMAZING app that can be used for virtual or in person fun!! Aging Booth is SUCH a fun app that ages you and their pictures turn out SO cute! It goes perfectly with their 100 year old writing!

Socially Distanced 100th Day Fun

A huge stressor of this year has been trying to actually social distance in a classroom full of students. But guess what? You made it 100 days in an unforgettable school year. You’ve given your students the love, support, and space to grow through this pandemic. This 100 Days together is not only a HUGE celebration for students, but also a HUGE celebration for educators!! So while celebrations may look so different this year, we can still make this day special! I am confident in the fact that you can still throw a super fun, socially distanced, 100th Day Celebration. Not only will you be promoting safety, but you’ll also provide students with a long deserved fun day to remember. So let’s take part in this equation:

A lot of activities + a little social distancing = A perfect 100th Day to remember!

This setup is designed to deliver a fun and engaging day for your students that they are sure to remember. I will help you have an organized and successful event that will help you have fun with your students in an exciting way. These stations can easily be used in social distancing situations! Even before a pandemic and social distancing, I felt slight anxiety on how to pull off a great 100th day celebration without killing ME in the process. Dealing with these feelings, I asked myself, “How could I make this overwhelming time special while at the same time, take some of the pressure off?” I came up with one word: STATIONS! Students have such a blast and it gives me so much more time to go around and help students will as they make their way through the stations! Students are equipped with a checklist to make sure they make it to each of the fun stations! Here are some we set up. I have created an editable version of this checklist for you to use as many or as few station ideas as you would like!

Editable Stations

A Hundred Piece Puzzle

This one is SUPER easy and a great way for students to work. Students can work collaboratively or independently (for sanitary purposes). You can grab puzzles at The Dollar Store too! Fun AND cost effective!! Below you’ll see some examples of them.

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 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). However, to keep things as sanitary as possible, you could create a digital collaborative file for you all to record virtually. Some examples include a running Google Doc, a Google Slide, or a Google Jamboard! If you would like to learn more about Jamboards, you can check out this post and when you subscribe you’ll have access to tons of How-To Videos including a Jamboard Tutorial.

Fill in A Hundred Chart

This is a super fun and adaptable activity that can easily be socially distanced. In the past, I’ve used little manipulatives numbered for ordering, such as mini erasers or candy hearts. To make it “COVID friendly”, you could absolutely use pieces of the hundred chart for students to fill in so that only one or a very few students touch the same paper.

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! This is now available digitally with the digital 100 Day Pack.

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!

100 Chart Puzzles

This activity is one that can easily be differentiated for students. I like to print a simple hundred chart on Astrobright paper. To differentiate, you could use three different colors to print on and cut up the charts to accommodate various levels and let students choose their own degree of challenge. They LOVE the opportunity to test themselves and they have so much fun! This is another easily adaptable activity where students can each get their own puzzle to work on so they are not sharing germs with others.

These are just some of the fun station ideas you’ll find in my 100th Day of School Fun Resource. I truly enjoyed creating an entire exciting experience for students while also helping take some of the pressure off you when it comes to planning for such an awesome day with these new restrictions. Not only are these stations a BLAST for students, but the entire idea behind the stations is that it is perfect for social distancing. These stations can be organized around the room to keep students at a distance while they enjoy all the fun learning. You can set limits of students at a station at a time and make it so that each student has their own set of materials and papers. A total win-win.

100th Day of School Activities Pack

THE BUNDLES

Below you’ll see the bundles that includes ALL these engaging activities… with some FREEBIES of course!

PRINT 100th DAY BUNDLE

DIGITAL 100th Day BUNDLE

PRINT AND DIGITAL MEGA BUNDLE

I hope you enjoyed learning about how we can celebrate the 100th Day safely whether remotely or in person! 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 Digital FREEBIE! But 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.