A daily part of our Number Corner routine is keeping track of the days we have been in school. We record these numbers on a number line and build it using ten frames and links, all of which help students develop a sense of our number sequence and our base ten system, grouping numbers as sets of tens and ones. It also makes us very aware of the 100th day, which we reached on Friday. 

To celebrate this exciting milestone we engaged in a variety of activities centered around 100. On Wednesday afternoon, when the school was mostly empty, we searched the halls for hidden sets of ten frames up to 100, which gave students practice counting by 10's. We also played a partner game collecting 100 cubes, stacked 100 cups, practiced reading 100 words, and made strings of 100 beads in sets of 10. Always the highlight of this day is the special snack with 100 little morsels (students have to count before they eat.) While celebrating this day is mostly about having fun, I find that the emphasis on 100 for a few days also helps deepen children's sense of our number system. 

 For the last several weeks we have been exploring forces and motion in science. During this time we have identified different pushes and pulls and explored the effect of characteristics such as weight, size, shape, and surface texture on the amount of force needed to move an object or influence its movement. We also explored invisible forces including gravity, wind, and magnetism. Sledding on the playground with its ever-changing conditions is always a great way to reinforce these concepts.