For many many years, we celebrated the 100th day of school in first grade. A few years ago, we decided to switch it up and celebrate the 120th day instead. We do this for a couple reasons. First, kindergarten always celebrate the 100th day of school and kids would always say “we did this last year”. The other main reason and most important reason we celebrate the 120th day of school, is because the standards changed and first graders now need to be able to count to 120. Read on to find out about the 120th Day of School projects we do to make practicing counting to 120 fun.
Students will have so much fun, they won’t even realize that they’re working on math all day long. they will also get to enjoy some yummy treats. keep reading to find out all the fun things we do to celebrate the 120th day of school projects.
One of my favorite 120th Day of School projects is making the 120 Fruit Loops necklace. This project is fun, educational, and most importantly delicious. Students will add sets of 10 Fruit Loops at a time until they get to 120. Once they have all 120 on their necklace, they bring the necklace to me so I can tie it. Before I tie it, I have them point to each group of ten and count to 120. This can get a little messy when they start to eat it so I usually send it with them to recess. They can make their mess on the playground.
Here are a few tricks I have learned over time to help make this process go smoother. First, I tape a piece of yarn to their desk so that it will hold still while they add the fruit loops onto the string. Next, if I can’t find the premade yarn laces, I put a piece of scotch tape around the tip so it helps them thread the cereal on easier. I linked the laces I like to use and there’s enough fro several year’s worth.
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My next favorite activity on the 120th day is the Friendship snack. I ask parents to send in lots of little snack items and dixie cups. I put all the snacks in larger bowls and then give each student 12 dixie cups. If you don’t have a ton of dixie cups, you can always do this in small group and just call a few kids at a time and reuse the cups. They’re not drinking from them, so it should be safe enough. Also, if I have any ki8ds with food allergies, I make sure they get a fresh set of cups so they don’t inadvertently have a reaction.
Due to Covid, this year I’ll not only have students wash their hands before starting on their snack, but I’m going to borrow some food gloves from the cafetaria so we can be extra safe about making our snacks. I allow students to put 10 of each item into the dixie cups and by the end, they’ll have 12 cups with 10 snack food items in each. I give them a ziploc bag and have them dump each cup as they count by 10’s. Again, this gives them the practice counting by 10’s and they’ll make the connection to the 120th day.
Some of the snacks I ask for are Goldfish, mini-marshmallows, Cheerios, Skittles, M&M’s, pretzel sticks, mini-pretzels, Teddy Grahams (chocolate and cinnamon), white chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and popcorn. Sometimes we have enough for them to fill up all twelve without repeating items, but other times they might have two or more of the same. When that happens, I tell them they can double up on any except the candy. Otherwise, they might take all 120 pieces of candy instead of a mixture.
The rest of the activities are more paper pencil, but still a fun way to practice counting to 120. Most of the following activities can be done without any special materials. If you’re short of time however, feel free to purchase my 120th Day package with lots of fun learning activities for the 120th day of school.
My favorite is the 120 Mystery Picture. You read them clues and they color in a few squares based on your clues. When finished, it will make a 120 on the 120 chart.
Next, we can’t learn about 120 without writing about it. Again you can do this on your preferred writing paper, but my packet includes several different adorable options for you. They can write about what they would do if they had $120 (not much these days 🙂 ), what they wish they had 120 of, or what they did on the 120th day of school. Sometimes I save that last one for the next day so they can write about all the activities of the day.
Of course, we can’t forget about getting in 120 exercises. I love to use this as a brain break in the middle of the day. We stand up near our desks and everyone completes each exercise together and they check it off. Download a copy of this checkoff sheet here.
Another activity we do is how many times they can write their name in 120 seconds. I have them take a guess as to how many times they think they can write it. They think 120 seconds is forever so they always guess way too high. Again, you can do this on any lined paper of your choice.
Last, but not least, we have the 120th day crown. You can’t have a real celebration in first grade without a crown, can you? I think not. I usually sneak this activity in when they seem to need a break from counting. As fun as all the activities are, sometimes they just need a coloring break. Don’t forget to take pictures of those cute kids that made it to the 120th day of school.
You can also send them home with a certificate stating they are 120 days smarter.
Well, that wraps up our super fun 120th day celebration. Let me know if you have any fun ideas to add to this list. I’m always looking for more ways to celebrate.
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