So you may have heard all about celebrating 100 days of school but have you tried 101 days of school activities with your students? If not, you are definitely missing out! I used to only do the 100 days of school. But now, I LOVE to celebrate 101 days of school with my students. I’ve had so many educators reaching out asking for more information on my 101 days of school lesson plan, so I thought I would share some of the activities with you all before as well as links for you to grab the resources for your classroom too!
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What is “101 Days of School?”
So, incase you’ve been living under a rock and you’re not sure what I’m talking about.. Many of us educators like to celebrate 100 days of school with our students by doing a bunch of 100 themed activities.
101 day is kinda like that, but instead of celebrating 100, we’re celebrating 101! And I always tie it in to the theme of dalmatians!
When to Do It?
Like the name pretty much says.. We do it on the 101st day of school!
Daily Lesson Plan
Before I share information and photos of all of the activities that we do, I thought I would give you a written overview of how the day looks for our 101 day.
We send a note home explaining that we’ll be celebrating the 101st day of school and the theme is dalmatians and we invite parents to send in plain white t-shirts. We ask in advance and to let us know if they can’t afford to send one in, I will usually provide one for the students. I often keep spare packs of white t-shirts in my cupboard for emergencies for my students, so it’s easy enough for me to provide if I need to for any reason.
- 9:00: Arrival. Breakfast.
- 9:30: Morning meeting.
- 10:00: Start of centers. My students will each rotate through the 4 different centers.
Center 1: 101 Dalmatian coloring page.
Center 2: Decorate your own t-shirt like a dalmatian.
Center 3: Design a dalmatian hat.
Center 4: If I had 101 dogs.. Writing prompt craft. - 10:40: Recess.
- 11:00: Snack – 101 snack treats on a mat.
- 11:20: Centers. My students will each rotate through 3 different centers. If there are students who didn’t get a chance to complete some of the earlier centers, I will have those as ‘center 4’ with a member of staff calling students over to complete those activities. The design your own t-shirt is a staple center because that one typically takes the longest with my students.
Center 1: Decorate your own t-shirt like a dalmatian.
Center 2: Catch up station.
Center 3: Build a doghouse.
Center 4: Dalmatian slime. - 12:00 Lunch and recess
During lunch time is when I run through who hasn’t done/completed which activities and move those to the catch up station with a member of staff.
- 1:00: Afternoon meeting.
- 1:15: Centers. Once again, students will rotate through these and I have the catch up station.
Center 1: Decoration your own t-shirt like a dalmatian and catch up.
Center 2: Literacy station: Label the dalmatian, CVC matching and 101 theme writing prompts.
Center 3: Math station: 101 spots on the dog, Color (colour) by number and doggy number grids.
Center 4: Dalmatian cupcakes. - 2:15: Spot says.. movement breaks. Either an hour later or when the centers have all been completed, we get up and do some movement breaks. These ‘Spot says..’ movement breaks always go down really well with my students.
- 2:25: Dalmatian party. Everyone gets to put on their dalmatian t-shirts and hats. Then we have a little dalmatian party! We play music.. Eat our dalmatian cakes.. I usually blow up some dalmatian balloons and we can play with those too.
- Once the party is finished, we typically have some outdoor recess while the remaining staff help me tidy up the classroom before home time. Each student receives a certificate for taking part and a little treat bag.
That’s a brief overview of what our 101 days of school celebration looks like. Below I’ve linked some items on a shopping list that I like to have for our celebration. You can also grab my entire 101 days of school activity pack here.
Decorating the Classroom
I also like to decorate the classroom with dots, footprints and dalmatian bits for students to arrive to. It makes the whole dalmatian theme really come to life in the classroom.
Shopping List – USA
- 101 Dalmatians Book
- Plain White T-Shirts
- Black Sharpie Pens
- Oreos
- Treat Bags
- Table Cloth
- Paw Print Stickers
- Floor / Wall Cling Paw Prints
- Dalmatian Number Balloons
- 10 Pack Dalmatian Balloons
- Dalmatian String Lights
Shopping List – UK
- 101 Dalmatians Book
- Plain White T-Shirts
- Black Sharpie Pens
- Oreos
- Treat Bags
- Table Cloth
- Paw Print Stickers
- Floor / Wall Cling Paw Prints
- Dalmatian Number Balloons
- 20 Pack Dalmatian Balloons
- Dalmatian String Lights
Don’t forget to download the 101 days of school activity pack here.
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Nikki
