The 100th Day of School: How it All Began

The First 100th Day of School

Did you ever wonder how the 100th day of school began? Many years ago, I had the pleasure of connecting with one of its originators while writing a book about this time-honored tradition. Here’s what I found out.

Back in 1979, Lynn Taylor, along with her colleagues David Cooper and Mary Hurdlow, celebrated their first 100th day of school. The idea grew from their experience with a program called Math Their Way and an activity called The Days of School Graph. Lynn published the idea two years later in the Center for Innovation’s newsletter and it all grew from there.

On that first 100th day, Lynn remembered using Sesame Street’s The Count to do a magic trick, where he transformed 100 pennies into a one dollar bill. Presto chango!

She also shared her 100th-day snack, a recipe she called Hiyaku, named after the Japanese word for 100.

Today’s 100th Day Activities

Since that time, many teachers have expanded on Lynn’s original idea to create fun ways for kids to celebrate their 100th day of school.

Our 100th day is coming up this week and we will be doing some fun Investigation Stations. These include hands-on math and science activities centered around the number 100.

We will also explore the children’s 100th Day Collections, as they compete in “olympic style” measurement events to find out whose collection is the longest/shortest, heaviest/lightest, has the most/least volume and the largest/smallest area.

Our 100th day snack will be a cheese stick and two crackers (a pretzel stick and 2 cookies work too!)

And I’ll use the 100th Day to launch an Animal Research Project, where kids learn that centipede means “100 feet,” and then work to find the answer to the inquiry question, “Do centipedes REALLY have 100 legs?”

And what’s the 100th day without a fun hat to wear!

Grab your FREEBIE here!

UPDATE: Virtual 100th Day Celebration

In 2021, there became a need to do the 100th day virtually. So, I created a Digital 100th Day Event. It has a “smart cookie” theme and includes a clickable Google Slide that will take you to 12 different 100th day activities. While it was created for remote teaching, it can still be used in the classroom using your digital white board. Choose the activities you like best and off you go!