Perhaps you are wondering why there is so much fuss about the 100th Day of School. After all, it's become practically a holiday in many elementary schools! In my mind, it's with good reason. Not only is it an opportunity to celebrate all students have learned in the first 100 days of the school year, but it's also a chance to engage students in counting and place value concepts. And, it's not just a random celebration--it's one we've been working towards since the very first day of kindergarten. Every day, we add a number to our big blue 100 grid and talked about how many days we've been in school. We also add 1 straw to our place value chart. When we get 10 straws, we put them in a bundle of 10 and move them to the tens place. In this way, we practice counting by tens in a way that makes it more meaningful. Now that we are at 100--we have ten bundles of ten, which I put into one big bundle in the hundreds place. Students were very curious why there are two zeros in 100--this makes it a bit easier to explain. There is one group of 100 in the hundreds place and zero in the tens and ones places: 1-0-0, 100! Working up to the 100th Day also gave us a fun opportunity to count using the 100 grid each day--usually by ones and then by tens up to whatever number we were on for that day of school. Since the standard for oral counting is counting 1-100 by ones and tens by the end of kindergarten, we are well on our way! Our explorations of numbers to 100 is certainly not over now that we've passed the 100th Day of School! We will continue to solidify students' understanding of these numbers, with a particular emphasis on numbers 0-30. We will also continue to count our days of school, since many students are very curious about those numbers beyond 100. Please continue to support your child's math development by counting together. Students are really starting to see how grouping items in tens can help count larger quantities. Noticing numbers in the home and out and about can bring attention to why all of this matters, and how we use numbers in our daily lives. Thanks for all you do! | |