Celebrating 100 Days of Smiles

It’s hard to believe students are already celebrating their one-hundredth day of school.

Students in Mrs. Michelitch’s kindergarten class invited their parents to visit their classroom to help them mark the day. Students and parents rotated between four stations, each with a different themed activity designed to help them practice some skills they’ve learned during their first one hundred days of school.

“It’s very exciting. I love to see what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis and how they act with their peers,” said Jaclyn Degrazio, parent volunteer.

At one station, students completed a color-by-number sheet featuring the number 100. Students had to find the spaces that corresponded to a specific color for each number. When they were done, a bold “100” stood out on the page.

Over on the carpet, students got moving with a series of exercises, each for a repetition of ten. Exercises included squats, push-ups, lunges, frog hops, and jumping jacks. By the time they were through all the exercises, they had done a total of 100 reps!

“We’re outside of the school so much that when we get a chance to come in, it’s just really amazing to see what they're learning and being a part of that process,” Jaclyn added.

Students and parents counted 100 pennies at another station by separating them into groups of 10. Once they had counted all the pennies, they were rolled and will later be donated to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a non-profit organization that helps to train and provide guide dogs for people with visual impairments.

Finally, students counted to 100 again, but this time with beads. They covered numbered squares on a page with beads until the page was full. All 100 beads were then strung onto a cord to make a colorful and creative necklace. Some designed their necklaces based on colors they liked, whereas others practiced their pattern recognition skills. Each was unique and bursting with creativity.

“We’re working on a necklace with 100 beads,” said Alea Dizdari. “It’s really long!”

There were at least 100 smiles shared during their celebration with many more to come throughout the year.