For many classrooms, the 100th day of school falls around the end of January or in early February. Teachers around the country use it as a chance to add some fun to their regular lesson plan. The 100th day of school can be incorporated into every subject - including language arts and writing.
Use the celebration of the 100th day of school to activate your students’ creativity by giving them themed writing prompts. Engaging their imaginations around a fun prompt will provide an opportunity for your elementary students to express their thoughts, develop critical thinking skills, and reflect on the year so far.
The results are sure to be something the students will enjoy bringing home to share with their parents. We have three creative writing exercises that will add to the class celebration of the 100th day of school. All of the projects below can easily be made into a classbook that students can look back on as they grow as writers.
Writing Projects for Elementary Students to Celebrate the 100th Day of School
Writing Prompt #1: How have you changed since the beginning of the school year?
Elementary school students can change a lot during a school year — not only in height and shoe size but a lot also changes when it comes to personality and maturity. As a teacher, you might notice these differences, but how does the student see changes? Would the kids notice that they’ve grown taller or that they have a better understanding of who they are becoming as a person?
You could help the kids think about how they’ve changed by asking if they have been given more responsibility at home, such as additional chores. Or perhaps there was a shelf they couldn’t reach last summer that they now can? Did they recently have to tell their parents that their winter jacket doesn’t fit anymore?
PROJECT IDEA
Click to view flipbook >>
Ask students to talk with family members from grandparents to siblings to survey how others think the student has changed the last 100 days. It would be great if they can include any tangible results, such as height changes, and then write about whether they noticed these changes in themselves as well. Have students add an illustration depicting how they saw themselves on the first day of school and on the 100th.
By taking these reflections and publishing the students’ work into books, they will have a physical representation of who they were and who they have become over a relatively short amount of time.
Writing Prompt #2: You can have 100 of any item in the world. What item would you choose and why?
This writing prompt for elementary students is guaranteed to provide some unique and funny answers.
The most creative and interesting part will be the ‘why’. This is where the creativity of elementary-aged students comes into play. As a teacher, helping them think about reasons why—prodding them to say more than just they like the item they chose—will elicit more creative answers.
PROJECT IDEA
Providing students with a tangible way to see what 100 of an item looks like is a great way to get students thinking. Bring in large jars with, for example, 100 marbles or 100 cheese balls and then, if you have space, 100 books to give the students an idea of how much space 100 items can really take up. This should allow the students to start visualizing ideas.
Now that they have seen what 100 items look like, then ask them to give additional thought to their item. Where would they store the 100 items? What would they do with them?
Finish the project by having the students draw their 100 items, and then put all of the students’ answers together in one wonderful classbook to remember this fun celebration.
Writing Prompt #3: You can ask someone that is 100 years old anything. What do you ask them and why?
Letting kids’ imagination run wild with the thoughts of what it was like 100 years ago should prove to be a fun writing exercise. An elementary student, especially those in the lower grade levels, likely don’t have a good understanding of what the world looked like 100 years ago, so you should enjoy reading their questions for this 100-year-old person.
It might be helpful to get the children’s brains going by providing a few examples. What was school like 100 years ago? Or perhaps how did you get around 100 years ago? Was it by horse, car, train? What was your favorite food?
It won’t take much for kids to start wondering how much things have changed in 100 years.
PROJECT IDEA
Prep for this project by bringing in historical research on what the United States looked like 100 years ago. It is great for students to view photos, especially of the area they live, this will give them a visual aid to help better understand more about life 100 years ago.
Now it’s time for the kids to imagine their lives 100 years ago. What would family life be like? What would they do in school? What would they wear? How would they communicate with people? Let them weave a tale of their lives while incorporating in the questions they might ask a person who actually lived during that time period.
And don’t forget to have them include a drawing of their imaginary life!
Celebrating Events with Creative Writing
A school celebration like the 100th day of school provides an opportunity to memorialize the event in writing. Capturing the creative writing of students with different writing activities throughout the year gives you as a teacher the ability to see growth in the students’ writing from the first day to the last day.
By publishing your students’ work into a classbook, you’ll be giving both the children and their families a way to permanently capture a moment in time. Not only that, but the children will love seeing themselves as published authors and become more confident in their writing!
For more ideas on how to put a spark in your students’ writing, visit our online teacher’s lounge and sign up for a free classbook publishing kit.