100 Day Countdown to 2011 (#2, more math ideas!)

If you'd like to join us in our 100 Day Countdown to 2011, here are several fun activities designed for different ages:

1. We made 100 paper links and will take one down each day. Every 10th link is black. My 8yo stapled the links after I figured out he could do it independently with a mini stapler. I worked on the chain as well, asking my 4yo to hand me the correct color of paper, following the pattern. (Blue/orange/blue/orange until we'd get to the 10th link.) I used 12" construction paper and cut 1" strips. Had I been more thoughtful, I would have asked my 8yo to figure out how many pieces of each color paper we'd need to get enough links of each color.

As we constructed our paper chain, we counted by tens. After we had the paper piled on the floor, I asked the boys how long they thought our chain would be when we stretched it out. You can see it below, tacked across a wall...

2. Each boy has a hundreds chart. My 8yo is counting down from 100, my 4yo is counting up from one. Each day, they cross off one number.

3. We posted a hundreds pocket chart so we could add a penny each day, making conversions (to nickels, dimes, quarters, etc) as we go. I'm basically following Joyful Learner's suggestion.

4. My 8yo writes five number sentences each day for the day we're on. He can use any operations, making the sentences as long or as short as he likes as long as the total equals the day. So, for example, for day 100 (counting down), he wrote:

Share your "100 day" ideas in the comments below! ;)

Note: The student math journal page (as shown in #4) is from the Math Learning Center. Undoubtedly, some of these ideas are similar to things I've done with MLC materials, but I cannot give credit because I'm not sure where some of the ideas floating around in my head came from. Anyone else have that problem???

100 Day Countdown to 2011

The tradition of "100 Days of School" is a little difficult for us to pull off. We do school ALL. THE. TIME. Sure, we have days off--"it's a gorgeous day so we're playing outside" or "it's snowing so we're on vacation"--but when public school started here, we were already on week #9 of schoolish stuff. So it's hard to come up with "100 Days of School" to count. (I actually think the concept of "100 Days of School" could really confuse my youngest since our stop/start days are so vague.)

Instead, we are doing "100 Days to the New Year." Today, I begin by asking my ds:

1. How many days do you think it is until 2011? (estimate...I may have him show me on a number line how many days--how far--he thinks it is)
2. How could you figure out how many days until 2011?
3. Figure out how many days.

We'll be doing some activities with 100 over the coming months. It'd be great if others want to join us.* You can start by having your kiddos do the activities above. You can google "Countdown 2011" and find sites like this one that are counting down in days, hours, minutes, seconds.


*If you are doing "100 Days of School" it wouldn't be hard to join us since most 100 school days will come soon after the New Year.

P.S. I'm thinking about making the 2011 Children's Calendar a surprise gift for the 100th day! ;)