Believe it or not, we are already getting close to 100 days of school! Completing 100 days of school is exciting for many reasons, the most important of them being that it is a great opportunity (and an excuse) to play some more games, solve some more puzzles, do some more scavenger hunts, celebrate math, and have fun learning.
Find some ideas and resources below
1. Scavenger hunts
You can hide 100 of something around the room or the school and ask the students to find them. For example, for grades 1-2, I hide red hearts with the numbers 1-100 on them. I have a big laminated empty (no numbers) 100 chart/grid on the wall and every time they find a heart they stick it on. This can be a one-day activity or you can hide a few numbers every day and continue the scavenger hunt for a week. You can allocate time for looking or let the students find them as they do their usual activities around the classroom. For grades 3 and up you can write a problem on each heart for which the answer is a number 1-100. They solve it, write the answer on the other side of the heart and then paste it on the grid. If you want to turn this into a competitive game between groups or even classes you can allocate a color for each group. When they find a heart they color the number/tile on the grid or 100 chart. The first group to get 4 in a row or the first group that finds the most hearts wins.
One year we hid 100 bees (pictures) around the school the week before the 100th day of school and placed a bee hive with 100 cells for the students to place the bees on. The idea was to find all the bees by the 100th day of school. A bee was our school mascot.
2. Games
Four in a row games 100 or less or more in four levels, print and google slides versions Find all the levels below.
Addition, subtraction, multiplication,division, order of operations
Fractions and decimals operations
Exponents fractions, decimals, integers, square roots
You just need dice and colored pencils. The students solve expressions/problems and mark their answers on the grid. Google slides versions included.
More print to play games – 100
tasks-addition subtraction, order place value
3. Puzzles-Mazes
100 pyramid
This simple activity can lead to interesting math talks. Get your students to create a number pyramid with 100 on the top. Which numbers work? which don’t? Try using addition and subtraction. Can you do a multiplication pyramid? Division?
Here is another puzzle that you can try. Remind your students that the order of operations is important and that they can use parenthesis.
Some solutions
1x (2+3) x 4 x 5 – (6-7-8+9) =100
(1+2+3+4+5+6+7 )+ (8×9) = 100
(1×2)+(3×4) x 5+(6+7+8+9)=100
You can have some friendly competition between groups with puzzles/problems like the ones below.
4. Guessing games
Create a few estimating/guessing opportunities for your students, and have them register their guesses as 100, more than 100, or less than 100. The group with the most correct estimations wins.
Some ideas I have tried
- Place a number of marbles, candy, jelly beans, cheerios, acorns, or anything else in a jar and ask your students to guess if they are 100, more than 100, or less than 100.
- Choose a tree with a wide stem in the schoolyard. How many paper clips in a chain will it take to circle the tree?
- How many legos 2×2 will it take to cover a tile on the ground?
- How many units (ones from base ten blocks) will it take to cover the surface of a specific book?
- Show a puzzle piece and the area of the finished puzzle. How many pieces is the puzzle? 100? more or less?
- Guess the weight of an object measured in legos or beans or any other small objects that you have many of. Use a scale, more than 100 legos or less?
- Kids holding hands around the school building.
- Kids standing along the classroom wall.
More resources
Build fluency with numbers 1-100. Missing numbers, puzzles, games, ideas – print and digital.
Number Sense to 100 and beyond, comparing, ordering, building numbers.
