Donned with fruit loop cereal necklaces of 100 pieces and paper hats with the number “100” on them, Jackson Elementary School kindergartners were ready for the task at hand: a day filled with counting to 100.
Thursday marked the 100th day of school for the children and their teacher Sally Pollard, who wore a hat, necklace and pin with the number 100 on it.
The kinders fifth grade “buddies” were there to help them with their tasks for the day of number writing and tallying. Inside, the children made their paper hats with 10 tallies of 10 on them. They then moved stations to a fill out a chart of numbers 1 to 100, with missing numbers. The students also had to write their name as many times as they could in 100 seconds.
Fifth grader Eileen Airdila was helping her buddy Andrea with the 10 tallies for her paper hat.
“We need to count them. Ready? How many more tallies do we need?” Airdila asked. Andrea figured she needed four more tallies of 10 to make it to her 100 total.
Nearby Nathan, 5, was looking forward to the end of the day activity, “Fundue.” Their teacher had one chocolate Kisses candy for each day of the school year. It was the job of the kindergarten VIP to place the candy into the jar each day until the 100th day was reached. Now on the 100th day, Pollard melted the chocolate in a fondue pot and children could dip bananas, strawberries, marshmallows and vanilla wafer crackers into it. Parents and teachers supervised to limit their sugar load.
Nathan’s buddy Ryan Nave, 11, remembers his 100th day of school in Mrs. Pollard’s class.
“I liked making the necklaces,” said Nave. “I ate it when I got home.”
Outside the students got a little exercise and fresh air. Fifth grade buddies supervised as the kindergartners had to complete ten jumps, hops, bounce a ball to themselves, bounce a ball to their buddies, walk forward, walk backward, jump over a stack of blocks, do jumping jacks, toss a beanbag to themselves, then to their buddy. For a grand total of, you guessed, 100 times.
Pollard’s favorite part of the 100th day?
“The joy of the children celebrating school,” she said.
