I’ve used many 100th Day of School Activities to celebrate this fun day with my students over the years, so I thought I’d share some fan favorites with you! It’s one of the only days in the school year where you can ask your students, “What have you learned in these 100 days of school?” and they’ll actually give you a decent answer! I love the 100th Day of School – and yes, I most definitely highlight and celebrate it with the upper elementary students too. They love it!
There are SO MANY ways to celebrate the 100th Day of School, but, to me, the most important thing is TO CELEBRATE! I know that you have mountains of grading, the looming observations, 10527 days of indoor recess, and an overflow of standards to teach before the dreaded standardized testing. But, you also have 30 kids who are still kids. And adding in some fun activities where they’re still learning is SO important, and it will make such a difference! So, here are my favorite 100th Day of School Activities for Upper Elementary.
100th Day of School Activity: Dressing Up
You may get some preteen eye rolls when you talk to your students about dressing up for the 100th Day. But know that really, they’re excited, especially when they find out that YOU’RE dressing up too!
Dress like you’re 100 years old!
I did this with my fourth graders, and we had a BLAST! Oh my goodness, I was blown away by their creativity! (And I was pretty excited for the challenge to draw on some wrinkles and gray my hair!)
Students came in with hats, glasses, cardigans, walking sticks, collared shirts, baby powder in their hair. It looked like I had a class of 100-year-olds instead of 10-year-olds! The student who took the cake though had his parents shave the top of his head, so it looked like he was balding!! HILARIOUS!!
Make a shirt with 100 things on it!
This is a 100th-day activity I did with my kindergarten classes, but the older kids would definitely have fun with it too! Task your students to add 100 of something to a shirt and wear it to school. I’ve had students cut 100 things out of magazines and attach them to the shirt. Others have poked 100 earrings into a shirt. It’s incredible to see the things they come up with!
Don’t forget to have a fashion show on the morning of your 100th day to show off their creations!
100th Day of School Activity: Morning Meeting
Morning Meeting is a must for me every day of the year, but I like to amp it up a little more on the 100th day! Here’s what I usually do for the 100th Day of School Morning Meeting:
Morning Meeting Greeting: If we’re all dressed like we’re 100 years old, we’ll act that way as we greet each other. Also, you can have students pass a greeting around the circle and say, “Happy 100th Day, (name)!” To make it even more fun, create a handshake like touching 1 finger, and then make a zero with your hand and bump hands twice, to make 100!
Morning Meeting Share: Make a list of things they have learned this 100 days of school or 100 fun memories. You can also have students share what they would like 100 of and what they would NOT like 100 of.
Morning Meeting Activity: You can prepare some 100-second challenges for students to complete (How many times can you jump rope in 100 seconds? How tall can you build a tower in 100 seconds? How many marshmallows can you stack in 100 seconds? etc.). Or you can put students into groups and give them 100 plastic cups, 100 blocks, or 100 strips of paper, and see what they can create!
Morning Meeting Message: Here are some sample prompts you can use – choose one to write on the board and have students answer!
If you were given $100,000, what would you do with it?
If you could travel to 100 places, where would you go?
Would you prefer to travel in time back 100 years or forward 100 years? Why?
What would you like to accomplish before you are 100 years old?
If you need help maximizing your Morning Meeting time or making it run smoothly, sign up for my free Morning Meeting training:
100th Day of School Activity: Centers
I have to say, after several years of planning and teaching on the 100th day of school, centers are my favorite part of the day! You can combine all of your favorite activities and make them engaging for your students. I have several different stations planned so students can rotate through them for a couple of hours. They can be reviewing concepts as well as having fun! These 100th day of school math activities, reading activities, and writing activities and more are low prep and easy to do independently.
100th Day of School Task Cards
Task cards make centers so much easier! They give the students exactly what they need to do while providing choices and adding a fun element. I created these 100th Day of School task cards for your classroom:
These task cards are broken up into eight categories, so you could have eight centers! I’ve included discussion prompts, place value tasks, operations tasks, and measurement word problems. And there are also writing prompts, craft activities, ELA tasks, and 100-second challenges. They make your life easier by just having to prep the task cards, instead of trying to come up with your own centers!
The task cards review several 4th and 5th grade standards that they will need to know for the state tests soon. But they can be used for third and sixth grade too! If you need to add or change any of the task cards, I’ve also included editable task cards. All you need to do is type in your tasks and print them like normal!
Instead of using the task cards for different centers, you can also use them for a game like Jenga, where they pick a block that’s a certain color and then pick a task card of that color to complete.
100th Day STEM Challenges
All kids love building and making things, and the 100th day is a great time to let them do that! I love adding in a couple of centers that challenge students to think creatively and work together to make something.
The classic is giving students 100 plastic cups to create something using all of them, and I can tell you from experience that the older students love this as much as the younger ones do!
Give your students 100 dominoes and see if they can create a chain reaction! This also became a favorite indoor recess activity for my students! You can also challenge students to create a structure out of 100 blocks, popsicle sticks, legos, etc. Basically, whatever you have lying around can become a STEM challenge!
100th Day Writing Projects
There are so many fun writing projects you can assign to your students. One of our favorites in fourth grade was taking a picture with the Oldify app, and then writing about what life will be like when we are 100 years old!
You can also have students use 100 words exactly to write a letter to someone (or a poem) or write about the 100 places they want to visit. You can also give them the prompt of what would life be like if we lived 100 years ago or who would you bring for dinner if you could bring 100 people, dead or alive?!
A fun extension of the writing is having the students record themselves reading their writing as a video in Chatterpix or another app. It adds a technology piece to the project and keeps them engaged in their writing longer!
Other 100th Day of School Activities
Here are some other great ideas that you may find useful:
What are you planning for your 100th day? Don’t forget to pin this image to reference again to repeat your favorite 100th day of school activities! Happy 100th Day of School!!
