100th Day of School

Yesterday was the 100th day of school. That's a big deal when you are in Kindergarten. We have a chart in the classroom that had a 1 on it the first day of school. Every day since, we have added another day to the chart. 100 is a big concept for a five year old and they really didn't believe that they would be in school for 100 days so we celebrate when we get to that point.

Celebrations are great for kids but hard on teachers. I have the kids make these T-shirts every year. They always look really cute. They stamp 100 things on the shirts in groups of 10. So from the moment they walked in the classroom and noticed that we were all wearing the same thing the noise level went through the roof and stayed there the rest of the day. Imagine having 21 kids all TALKING LIKE THIS ALL DAY LONG AND NO MATTER WHAT I SAY OR DO THEY CAN'T BRING IT DOWN! It didn't help that I had told them that if they counted to 100 for me all by themselves, I would let them go to the Treasure Box. All day long I had kids coming up to me and shouting, "MRS. KYLE, MRS. KYLE! I CAN DO IT! I CAN COUNT TO 100 ALL BY MYSELF!" I'd let them try. Do you know how long it takes to listen to 21 kids try to count to 100? Now it's not like we haven't worked on this. We do it every day as a class, but something strange happens when they have to perform all by themselves.

So, it goes like this. 1, 2, 3, ....... 28, 29 and then nothing. Most of them can't think of 30. I say, "I'm sorry. Keep practicing." To which they shout, "BUT I CAN DO IT! I KNOW I CAN DO IT! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME TRY AGAIN!" Then there are tears.

Most of the day was good though. They made posters with 100 things on it.

They made necklaces with 100 Froot Loops on it. Now they can't eat the necklace at school because it's against the law. So I have to keep saying, "Don't eat it now! Save it for home!".
Because if someone walked in and saw the kids eating Froot Loops, I could go to jail or something. We don't want fat kids in Texas.

I wanted them to have a special snack so we had Sugar Free Banana Pudding. We used 100 Vanilla Wafers which, oddly enough, are not banned by the Texas Legislature, 100 slices of bananas and pudding stirred 100 times. The kids did all the work after I had a little talk with them about cleanliness while cooking. They all washed their hands and I told them that if I saw anyone with their finger up their nose that they would be out of the cooking business. WE DO NOT WANT TO EAT THAT!

The pudding was a hit and I was exhausted so it must have been a good day.