The Roaring 1920s for the 100th Day of School

The 100th Day of School is always an exciting day for elementary students. Lower elementary (Kindergarten, first grade, second grade and even third grade) focus on the number one hundred, counting to one hundred and doing math that equal up to one hundred. Teachers also join their students in dressing up like 100 year old people. I have seen some really neat shirts with 100 items on them. Families can get super creative with costumes and projects for the 100th day of school.

100th Day of School for Upper Grades

Sometimes it is more difficult to motivate older students to participate in "100 day" activities. Unless you make them age appropriate and motivating. This school year I was moved from 2nd grade back to upper elementary, so I wanted to be sure my students were able to celebrate the 100th Day of School in a way that didn't feel "babyish" or immature to them. 

With help from the internet and each other, the 4th and 5th grade team came up with an idea that we knew would surely surprise our students. This would be a mixture of social studies, reading, fun and engagement. We brought our students back 100 years to the Roaring 1920s! That's right! The age of flappers, jazz music, the Model-T and prohibition. 

The Content

I chose some of the biggest concepts that made an impact one hundred years ago and created a scavenger hunt for the children to solve based on our current skill of finding main idea and key details. 

     

Click here for the Activity.

We split the children up in teams. They read the passage and figured out the main idea based on the supporting details. Once the children did this, they scanned the QR Code to check their answer. At the bottom of the screen, it would tell them which passage to find next and so on. As the children moved through all the cards they would finally reach the end. They would then grab the math task cards (based on the same concepts they just read about) and solve the word problems while the other groups finished. 

After the groups were finished, we made a large Venn Diagram on the board and spoke about what we learned from the passages. The children really enjoyed learning about the 1920s time period and comparing it to today. 

Click here for the activity I created for the Roaring 1920s

If you decide to try this in your classroom for the 100th Day of School, please tag me in any social media posts so I can see your photos! Thank you for stopping by my blog!

xoxo Kelly