Middle Gate Celebrates ‘100 Days Of School’

By Eliza Hallabeck

“One, zero, zero,” students sang across Middle Gate Elementary School on Tuesday, February 14, and in math/science specialist Pam Fagan’s classroom the song played, “…100 days of school.”

The 100th Day of School was greeted on Tuesday morning with fourth grade students singing the “100 Days of School” song on the school’s loudspeaker, according to Ms Fagan, and in different classrooms many activities were taking place by 10 am that had students celebrating the number 100.

With the 100th day of school also falling on Valentine’s Day this year, Ms Fagan said it was an extra special reason to celebrate.

In music teacher Tina Jones’s classroom, students learned a dance to the “100 Days of School” song. Middle Gate language arts consultant Mary Blair made her way to different classrooms on Tuesday to read Keiko Kasza’s book, The Wolf’s Chicken Stew, and had students search for 100 chickens after reading the book.

“Happy 100th Day, and Happy Valentine’s Day,” said Ms Blair to students in Lina Silveira’s first grade class.

Many teachers marked the day by wearing special outfits, like a T-shirt with 100 feathers attached to it worn by second grade teacher Kris Benton.

In Laura Schmidt’s second grade classroom students estimated how many rolls of dice it would take to add up to the number 100 showing on the face of the dice. The students then attempted the process to see how many rolls it would take on average in the classroom.

“What I love is the enthusiasm from the teachers,” said Ms Fagan, walking down the school hallways in her red 100th Day of School outfit. “Everyone gets into the enthusiasm of the day,” she said.

Ms Fagan’s room was decorated with 100th Day of School projects, marking the 15th annual all-school math day. Ms Fagan began celebrating the 100 Day of School 25 years ago when she was a kindergarten teacher at the school. For the past 15 years, with Ms Fagan as the school’s math and science specialist, the event has been a schoolwide celebration of the number 100.

The projects included using 100 items to demonstrate the 100th Day of School, and were optional for the students to complete. Last year, Ms Fagan said, students created 389 projects, and halfway through this year’s 100th Day of School she estimated there were even more projects this year.

“This is done because they want to,” said Ms Fagan, “not because their teacher assigned it.”

Students in kindergarten through fourth grade had the option of completing the projects. One project, a hanging mobile, marked both the 100th Day of School and the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting in the United States. Another project, created on a bright pink heart, said “Happy Valentine’s Day and 100th day at school,” and used 100 candy conversation hearts to create show the number 100.

February is also celebrated as Estimation Month at Middle Gate, Ms Fagan said, and a number of activities revolved around estimation at the school. Ms Fagan also said one of her favorite aspects of the 100th Day of School celebration is how creative the Middle Gate School teachers are with integrating math into all aspects of the curriculum for the different activities.

After a “Souper” Bowl food drive was held at the school, Principal Chris Geissler said the food drive was continued until the 100th Day of School with each grade level challenged to collect 100 cans of food to donate to the Food Pantry at Social Services at Town Hall South. Ms Fagan said this week that the school surpassed its goal and collected 749 cans of food, tallied on the 100th Day of School.