Reading Your Way Through the 100th Day of School

Yes, it's that time of year. The 100th day of school will soon be celebrated in classrooms around the country. There are many great web sites that suggest activities for the 100th day of school, but since I'm all about using children's literature, here are some terrific books for both the study of place value AND the 100th day.

• The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis - This Newbery Honor book is about Michael and his great-great-Aunt Dew. She has a box with 100 pennies, one minted each year since she was born. This is a short but moving read aloud.

• The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza - A hungry wolf delivers 100 pancakes, 100 donuts and a 100 pound cake to a chicken he wants to fatten up for a stew. When he arrives to retrieve the chicken, he gets a big surprise!

• From One to One Hundred by Terry Sloat - This terrific counting book counts from 1 to 10, and then by 10's to 100. The pictures are detailed and contain many things to count.

• One Hundred is a Family by Pam Muñoz Ryan - This books looks at all the different ways people can come together to become "a family."
  

• One Hundred Hungry Ants by Eleanor Pinczes - Find out all the different ways a group of ants can arrange themselves while marching to a picnic.

• Curious George Learns to Count From 1 to 100 by H. A. Rey - I'm a big fan of this little monkey. The man in the yellow hat challenges George to count to 100, so this book delivers many things to count, including a parade of ants, leaves blowing in the air, and rungs on a ladder.
  

• 100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler - What's a young girl to do when she can't find a collection of 100 items to bring to school on the 100th day?

• 100 Days of School by Trudy Harris - This book presents many different ways to count to 100. "If 99 dots are on a clown's suit, what do you get? 100 polka dots. Those . . . (on his clothes) plus 1 on his nose."

• Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate - On the eve of the 100th day of school, Miss Bindergarten asks her students to bring in "100 of some wonderful, one-hundred-full thing!" Find out what they bring and how the class celebrates. The illustrator, Ashely Wolff, has some ideas for celebrating the 100th day. Go on, take a look!

• 100 Days of Cool by Stuart Murphy - In this MathStart book, 4 students dress up ("funky") for the first day of school thinking their teacher wants to celebrate cool, but she really wants to celebrate 100 days of school. She challenges them to keep it up for the next 99 days, but how will they do it? You can visit Stuart Murphy's web site to check out some suggested activities.

Once you've done some reading, why not create a class book for the 100th day? ReadWriteThink has a fabulous lesson on Descriptive Writing and the 100th Day of School. All students bring in a bottle containing 100 items. Along with this, they write descriptive clues about the mystery items. Once the items have been revealed, students them complete pages of a book on each bottle and its contents.

If this list has served only to pique your interest, then head on over to these sites for more ideas.

• Complete the Wacky Wish poem (If I could have 100/of anything at all/ ...)
• Songs and Poems for the 100th Day of School
• Celebrate the 100th Day of School (Scholastic)
• Celebrate the 100th Day in 100 Ways

Do you celebrate the 100th day with some great books, poems or songs? I'll bet you do, so please share!