Today is a very special day for our daughter, a/k/a Sweetly Six. It is her 100th day of school. I don’t ever remember celebrating this day, do you? Apparently I’m behind the times – again – because it’s a BIG deal at her school!
One hundred is a pretty significant number. It corresponds to many things:
- 100 is a century.
- 100 is a dollar’s worth of pennies.
- 100 is 10 times 10.
- 100 is a new column in the place-value system.
- 100 is getting all of the answers correct.
- 100 is also the sum of the first nine prime numbers, as well as the sum of four pairs of prime numbers (47 + 53, 17 + 83, 3 + 97, 41 + 59), and the sum of the cubes of the first four integers (100 = 13 + 23 + 33 + 43). Also, 26 + 62 = 100, thus 100 is a Leyland number. (No, I didn’t just know that fact, but thanks for wondering!).
- The United States Senate has 100 Senators.
- In Belgium, 100 is the ambulance and firefighter telephone number.
- “The First Hundred Days” is an arbitrary benchmark of a President of the United States’ performance at the beginning of the term.
- 100 is the number of yards on an American football field (not counting the end zones). What can I say? The Super Bowl is still fresh in my mind!
- When a television series reaches 100 episodes, it is generally considered viable for syndication. I knew you wanted to know that!
Anyhoo, back to Sweetly Six. She is SO EXCITED about her 100th day of school, which automatically makes me so excited about it! Her kindergarten class has been preparing for it for a long time and will celebrate with a parade today. Seriously.
Fancy Nancy, a favorite in our home (and source of great vocabulary words, by the way!) even has a book about her 100th Day of School!
There are all kinds of fun ideas to celebrate the 100th day of school. Here are 10 ideas, a derivation of 100, of course.
- Find some people whose ages total exactly 100.
- Toss a coin 100 times and graph the (head and tails) results.
- What 100 objects could you fit in a 5 oz.. cup?
- How tall is a stack of 100 pennies?
- Learn how to say 100 in French, Spanish and German.
- Certificates for students with 100 days of perfect attendance (unfortunately, this does not include Sweetly Six).
- Everyone in the class brings in 100 items. Sweetly Six took in 100 raisins.
- Walk 100 yards.
- Read 100 pages.
- Go on a scavenger hunt to find 100 object at home and/or at school.
Hope the day is as fun for you as it is for Sweetly Six (Silver Lining).
The 100th day of school is important for schools, school districts, et al. because they receive Federal funding based on the number of students attending on Day 100 of the school year. So schools make it a big celebration in order to ensure attendance. I found this out (straight from the horse's mouth) when my kids were little (they are now 30, 29, & 27).
Very interesting, Joan. Thanks for sharing. We had a BLAST at the parade.