30 Ways to Celebrate 100 Days of School
100 Days of School is a time-honoured tradition that has been celebrated in schools around the world for years. It's a fun acknowledgement, usually for students in their first year of school, of 'making it' to 100 days of learning in the classroom.
Teachers have some of the best ideas for celebrating this milestone - whether it be special dress-up themes, games, activities, songs, books, parades - so we took to our social media pages to ask how you celebrate 100 days of school in your classroom. We had a bunch of fabulous suggestions, so we grabbed some of our favourites, alongside some other gems we found online and a few of our own 100 Days of School resources, and compiled them into this post for the ultimate guide to celebrating 100 Days of School this year!
Many schools use 100 Days of School as a great excuse for a dress-up day, often with a theme. If you're looking for some fresh new ideas outside of the classic 'Dress up as a 100-year-old' motif, check out some of these ones we found.
1. 100 Days Brighter
This theme is becoming increasingly popular due to the double entendre - you're celebrating 100 days of learning and knowledge, but why not also do it in your most colourful outfit? There are loads of options here, from fluoros and rainbows to sparkles and glow-in-the-dark accessories. The best part is, kids are likely to already have something colourful in their wardrobe, so this option reduces one-purchase costumes and makes life a little easier for busy parents.
2. 100 Years Ago
Why not add a historical element to your celebrations and transform your learning space into a classroom from the 1920s? You could spend the day learning about what life and school used to be like for children a century ago, and discuss how things have changed since. What was travel, technology and food like back then? Would they prefer to be living in the 1920s or now? Museums of History NSW created a series of videos called 'Growing Up in the early 1900s' which provides a fascinating look into the realities of early 20th-century living - a great springboard for captivating classroom discussions.
3. 101 Dalmatians
Embrace the vibes of the feel-good Disney movie 101 Dalmatians by dressing up in polka dots and celebrating 101 Days of School! The good news is that lots of the activities below can easily be adapted to suit 101 days of school, too.
4. 100 Rotations of the Earth - Space Theme!
We loved Rachel H's idea over on Instagram to celebrate '100 Rotations of the Earth' and make the day space-themed. Kids dressing up as astronauts and aliens would be super cute, you could decorate your classroom with planets and stars, and your activities could easily be space-themed too - what about making rocketships using 100 lego blocks, or writing wishes for the future onto 100 stars and sticking them onto the window? The possibilities are out of this world! 🚀
5. 100 Magical Days
Another suggestion from one of our followers on Instagram, Chloe's class does 100 Magical Days. This is a great one as students have a lot of options - they could be a favourite magical creature, fairytale character or superhero, or just wear something sparkly and pair it with a magic wand!
6. 100 Days Capes & T-Shirts
We love these opportunities for students to get creative! They simply take a piece of old fabric (for a superhero cape!) or a white t-shirt and draw or stick 100 things on it and voila - a hand-made, personalised 100 Days of School outfit. We've seen people use buttons, ink stamps, fabric pens, macaroni, pom-poms, googly eyes, and even guitar picks, just to name a few! For heaps more ideas, check out this blog post.
7. Letters & Sounds dress up
While it's not specifically '100' themed, we love the idea of celebrating what has been learnt during the first 100 days of school, and this is a great way of adding a literacy element to the day's festivities. Students choose a favourite letter or sound that they have learnt and dress up as something beginning with that letter. They could also bring a show-and-tell item or a special party snack to share that starts with their letter, too. Think; a mouse bringing in marbles to show the class, or a bear bringing in biscuits to share at snack time. Parents will love this one as there are limitless options and they're likely to be able to recycle something from the dress-up box if they don't want to shell out for a new outfit.
8. Future Careers
Celebrate the first 100 days by looking towards the future and imagining where the rest of your time at school might lead you. Students can dress up in an outfit that represents what they would like to be when they are older - whatever that means to them (prepare to see dinosaurs and aliens amongst the firefighters and scientists 🤣). You could follow this up with a literacy activity where students can draw and write about what they would like to be when they grow up and why.
9. 100 Days Crowns & Wristbands
Organising a themed 100 Days of School dress up day can be a big undertaking, and for many reasons it may not always be feasible for parents to organise or buy elaborate costumes for their kids. Whether you just want to play it simple this year or you want to make sure that every child in your class has something to wear to the parade, Pevan & Sarah have got you covered with crowns and wristbands for your students to decorate and wear on the special day. The crowns are free to download here, and Cub Club subscribers can grab the wristbands here.
Not a Cub Club subscriber? You can grab the 100 Days of School Wristbands over on TPT!
A wonderful way to celebrate 100 Days of School is by setting up a range of games, activities and crafts for your students to participate in throughout the day. These often have a theme around the number 100. Here are a bunch of ideas that we think would be super fun!
10. Scavenger Hunt
There's nothing more exciting than a hunt for hidden treasure. This could be a fun indoor game where you hide 100 small objects throughout the classroom - stickers, chocolates, or even tiny ducks - for your students to discover throughout the day. You could keep track of how many have been found by placing them on a hundreds chart.
Or perhaps move the fun to the outdoors? You could print 100 pictures or numbers and stick them to locations around the schoolyard for the kids to find, or hide letters in different areas that can be collected and arranged to form a special message.
11. 100 Actions Stations
We loved Alissa B's idea over on Facebook for getting active during the 100 Days of School celebrations by setting up movement break stations. At each station, students perform 10 actions - these could be 10 star jumps, 10 skips with a skipping rope, 10 hops on each foot - and they move through 10 different stations until they have completed 100 total actions!
12. Make the number 100
This could be a quiet, independent craft activity or a fun challenge in small groups! The idea is that students use objects or craft supplies to make the number 100. Perhaps it's 100 buttons glued to a page, or 100 lego pieces built to look like the number 100. You could let groups get creative by choosing their own materials to make the number - maybe they even use their bodies? - and let groups share their creations with the class afterwards.
13. 100 Items on a Necklace
Angela B on Facebook suggested this classic fine-motor skills activity - threading small items onto a piece of string to form a fun and colourful 100th day necklace! Students can use tens frames or a hundreds chart to carefully count out 100 buttons, beads or fruit loops (yum!) before stringing them together.
14. 100 Second Challenge
We love a quick, no-prep 100 Days of School activity! Put the timer on for 100 seconds and challenge your students to ANYTHING - how many star jumps can they do in 100 seconds? How many numbers can they write? How far can they run around the oval? How tidy can they make the classroom? How many story ideas can they think of? There are so many options to choose from and you can tailor it to almost anything you're working on in class at the moment.
15. Guess How Many
A classic guessing game with a 100 Days of School twist. Collect a number of large jars and fill each of them with a different kind of object - counters, lego, blocks, lollies, pebbles, rice, or anything else you have on hand. The trick here is that only one jar will contain exactly 100 items, with the other jars containing more or less than 100. Students guess how many items are in each jar, and decide which of the jars contains exactly 100. The closest guess is the winner!
16. 100 Reasons Why We Love School
Another gem from Alissa B on Facebook, students are provided with cut-out hearts to write reasons why they love school. The aim is to collect 100 hearts to display underneath the banner '100 Reasons Why We Love School'! So cute!
17. 100 Acts of Kindness
This is a great challenge to kick off at any time of year, but it would be especially lovely for a 100 Days of School celebration. Start with a discussion about Random Acts of Kindness - how can we be kind to others? What does it look like, and how do we feel when others are kind to us? Brainstorm a list of kind acts that students could do for others and try to 'catch' them being kind in the days and weeks after the challenge kicks off. Once you reach 100 acts of kindness, you could have another special celebration!
We have a lovely 100 Acts of Kindness classroom chart free to download in Cub Club for this very purpose, and kids love colouring in a heart each time they are 'caught' doing something kind!
18. 100 Books Challenge
Speaking of challenges, why not see if you and your class can read 100 books before the end of the year? We have a template for this one too, and similar to 100 Acts of Kindness, you get to colour in a book each time you read. A worthy challenge and a great way to practice counting!
19. 100 Days of School colouring sheet
Need a quiet, wind-down activity after all the excitement of the day's festivities? Put on some calming music and bring out this 100 Days of School colouring sheet for the afternoon. Once students have finished colouring it in, you could even use it as a sign for them to hold while you take a photo of them in their 100 Days outfit.
Not a Cub Club subscriber? You can purchase these resources over on TPT at the links below:
- 100 Days of School Class Chart
- 100 Days of School Tens Frames
- 100 Books Challenge
- 100 Days of School Colouring Sheet
We love it when a fun celebration can be paired with educational activities - and the best part is, kids will be having so much fun that they won't even realise they're learning! Here's a bunch of ideas you can use as part of your Literacy and Maths lessons in the lead up to and during 100 Days of School.
20. I'm Thinking of a Number between 1-100
A great, no-prep Maths warm up game! You simply choose a number between 1-100 and students have to guess which number you're thinking of. There are several iterations of this game that you can choose from depending on the level of your students and how much time you have:
- Students guess a number and you say 'higher' or 'lower' (you could use a hundreds chart to cross off numbers that have already been guessed!)
- Only allow students to ask questions such as 'is there a 4 in the tens column?', 'is it between 50 and 70?' or 'is it more or less than the number of students we have in our class?'. Encourage students to get creative with their questions to narrow down the answer.
- Turn it into a version of mastermind where you choose students to write their guess on a place value chart. Give each digit a tick if it is the correct number in the correct place value spot, a circle if it is the correct number in the wrong spot, or a cross if that digit is not in the number at all. A great way at exploring and using place value vocabulary. See below for an example.
21. Race to or from 100
A great game for practicing addition and subtraction strategies. Students play in pairs with a hundreds chart, counters and a ten-sided die. They roll the die and move their counter forward that many spaces, verbalising the equation as they move (”17 plus 4 is 21!”), aiming to be the first to reach 100 (or 0, if you're starting at 100!). You could ask students to record their equations in their maths books or on a mini-whiteboard, too. Encourage students to use the strategies that you’ve taught in the mini-lesson - if they roll a 9, for example, rather than counting forward nine spaces by ones, move down one place in that column to add 10, then back one space to make it 9. This game can easily be supported or extended by using one 6-sided die or multiple dice for two-digit addition and subtraction.
22. 100 Days of School Reflection sheet
A lovely draw & write activity, students will have the opportunity to reflect on their first 100 days of school, what they have learnt and what they would like to do, be or learn when they're older. This would be a special activity to include in a portfolio or memory book, display in the classroom, or send home to commemorate an exciting day of celebrations. This one is free to download - get it here!
23. 100 Years in the Past & In the Future
Flex those writing muscles as you imagine what life would have been like 100 years ago, or what it might be like 100 years in the future. There are two different options in this download - one for beginning writers that allows big spaces for creative drawings and a sentence starter for the past and the future, and one for more advanced writers, allowing them to expand on their ideas or perhaps write an information report or a narrative.
24. 100 Days Word Search
Practice reading, spelling and vocabulary with a 100 Days of School themed word search! Featuring words such as 'learning', 'celebrate' and 'friends', students will love this as an early finisher or morning work activity. To extend this task, have students create their own 100 Days of School word search for a friend to complete.
25. 100 Days Mystery Pictures
Kids LOVE these Mystery Picture activities, and they're great for practicing number recognition and hundreds chart placement, too. Using the colours listed at the top of the page, students colour in the correct squares to reveal the mystery picture. Our Mystery Picture download has 6 different 100 Days- and Celebration-themed pictures for students to discover. This is a quiet, calm activity to complete after an exciting day of games and celebrations.
26. Fill in the Blanks - 100 Things Edition
This is a writing activity that will have the kids (and you!) giggling away, and it's great for boosting vocabulary and practicing writing common words. Students finish the sentences by writing 100 things that they would like to eat, smell, see, buy, and more. At the bottom, they choose one of their sentences to draw a picture of. Students will have an absolute ball sharing their funny sentences with the class, and there'll be a lot of laughs as kids imagine what eating 100 cheeseburgers or hearing 100 lions roaring would be like!
Not a Cub Club subscriber? You can purchase these resources over on TPT at the links below:
It would be remiss of us not to mention that we also have a few songs and videos that would be perfect to include in your 100th Day celebrations. If you're a Cub Club subscriber, these are all available on your Videos page, but if not, never fear - two of them are completely free! Check them out below.
27. 100 Days Shout Out
Let Pevan & Sarah personally congratulate your little friends with this 100 Days of School shout out video! They will be absolutely delighted to know that Pevan & Sarah are cheering them on for having achieved this very special milestone. Cub Club subscribers can watch this video here.
28. Count to 100
Would it even be a 100 Days of School celebration if you didn't count to 100 at least once?! This video is a great way to practice counting all the way to 100, and it features some pretty groovy moves that would be perfect for a movement break during the day, too. Cub Club subscribers can watch it here.
29. On My Way
This beautiful song is often used at the end of a school year, but it's just as relevant for celebrating 100 Days at School, especially if you're planning a special assembly item. The lyrics acknowledge some of the most important things about spending time at school, including becoming smarter, kinder and braver, and the video includes easy-to-follow actions that would be perfect for a 100 Days of School performance. This one is free to watch here!
30. Better Together
Saving 'On My Way' for an End of Year graduation but still need a meaningful performance item for your 100 Days of School assembly? Bring the whole school together with this super-sweet song that reminds us that 'we're all different in a special way' and that everyone belongs! 100 Days of School is a great time to remind students how special they are every day, and how we're all 'better together'! This one is also free to watch right here.
BONUS #31: Certificates!
Here's a sneaky bonus resource just for reading this far 😉 We've got 8 brand new, full-colour 100 Days of School Certificates to proudly present to your students on their special day. This is a wonderful way to acknowledge their hard work during the first 100 days of school, and it makes for a gorgeous keepsake for years to come.
And if you celebrate 101 Days of School, we've got you covered with our 101 Days Certificate pack! Cub Club subscribers can grab both below.
You can grab our 100 Days of School Certificates over on TPT if you're not a Cub Club subscriber.
We hope this has given you plenty of new ideas for celebrating 100 Days of School in your classroom this year, but we'd love to hear from you - do you have any other suggestions for 100th Day activities? Are you going to try any of these ideas out? Hit us up on our Contact page to share your thoughts!
Looking for more resources for celebrating those all-important events in your classroom throughout the year? Check out our Celebrations printables page for a bunch of activities for Back to School, Easter, Mother's/Father's Day, Valentine's Day and more!
Not a Cub Club subscriber yet? You can purchase our full range of 100 Days of School resources over on TPT instead.
You can also try all of Cub Club with a 7 day free trial. With over 400 educational videos and related printables for every area of the curriculum, you'll never be short of fun, engaging activities for your classroom!