Students mark 100 days of school

Students at Pike Liberal Arts School celebrated a milestone Tuesday. With 100 days of school (plus a few) under their belts, teachers planned several projects involving counting to 100.

“That’s what’s fun about kindergarten,” said teacher Stacie Black. “We get to celebrate everything.”

Teacher Lea Sunday said a field trip and a winter storm had delayed the celebration.

“It’s actually the 105th day,” she said. “But we’re celebrating like it’s 100.”

Her students wore hats and glasses. Each student scanned a magazine for 10 words they could read and then pasted 100 of the words on a class poster.

Students brought 100 snacks to share and weighed them, making guesses at which would be heaviest.

Preschooler Maddie Sneed said counting that high was no easy feat.

“I stop at 20s and 30s. It’s really hard to get past 39. But, my parents started to help me and my sister, Mary Margaret,” she said.

Sneed’s class counted 100 beads and made necklaces with them. They practiced counting by fives and 10s, too.

Emma Sherwood said counting to 100 is tricky. Her kindergarten class used charts to help them count by fives.

“Counting by fives was hard because you had to get charts and sometimes I got confused where the number is,” she said.

In some classes, students brought 100 items to share with classmates in a show-and-tell.

“I brought these new kinds of Skittles,” said Brayden Pyron.

Kindergartener Lizzy Steed looked forward to snack time.

“We’re going to have 100 food in our bowls,” she said.

Students in Black’s class floated from one station to the next, cutting 100 circles for the class “gumball machine,” coloring pictures of hands until they reached 100 fingers and making hats that helped them count by 10s.

“We have a little bit of everything going on,” Black said. “They learn to count by ones, fives and 10s. It’s repetition and good practice.”