Kindergarteners mark 100th day with party

Look out world!

The kindergartners at Fearn Elementary School in North Aurora are officially 100 days smarter.

After a weekend snow delay, the morning and afternoon kindergarteners had a special 100th day of school celebration Feb. 4.

I joined three other moms and 21 5- and 6-year-olds in Bonnie Hebden's afternoon class on the special event.

The kids wore 100-day cardboard crowns, 100-day smarter stickers and proud smiles on their faces all afternoon as we helped them jump 100 times, count 100 pieces of cereal and candy, and announce what they would do if they had 100 dollars.

The teachers start talking about the 100th day of school on the very first day and continue to talk about every day hyping the event, kindergarten teacher Kathy Brown explained. Parents are recruited to "work" the event back when school began.

"The funny thing is, is that every year some of the kids are convinced that it's the last day of kindergarten and they are going on to the first grade," Brown said. "I think that's so precious."

Brown said that the kids are not sure what "one hundred" really means so the teachers use a multi-sensory approach in getting the concept through to the little ones.

She had her classes walk 100 steps in the hallway and decorate cookies and write 100 on them with Smarties candies.

Hebden's students were given specially-printed 100-day collection Zip-Lock bags and asked to bring back 100 of anything that would fit in the bag.

My daughter, Mary, collected 100 crayons in 10 rubber-banded bundles of 10. Other kids brought in 100 pennies, 100 paper clips and 100 hair ties.

"I change the activities we do every year based on my group and the needs of each class," Hebden said.

She admits that she is rethinking the cording she used for her students' 100-bead necklaces.

"I had a substitute coming in at the end of that day and he was chasing beads all over the floor," she said. "We just had to laugh at that point."

Hebden was smart to include a sit quietly for 100 seconds segment during the busy day. The kids thought it took forever to be quiet that long.

Mary was lucky not to miss her long-anticipated 100 day. She came home with a 101.6 degree fever the night before the original milestone date.

She cried and begged me to take her temperature again when I told her she would have to miss school. I was so happy to wake her and tell her school was canceled and she wouldn't miss 100 day.

Paul Garcia told me that his mother has been begging him to go to sleep at night.

"But I've been having a hard time going to sleep lately because I am just too excited about 100 day," he confessed.

My assignment in class that day involved helping the kids fill out a booklet about the 100th day of school.

The kids filled in the blanks in these sentences. I would like 100 ____ . I would not like 100 ____ . I can eat 100 ____ . I cannot eat 100 ____. If I had $100, I would buy ____. My mom says ___ 100 times. And they used the last page to draw a picture illustrating what they will look like when they are 100 years old.

In separate groups, both Jenna Bancroft and William Tammaru were so sure of themselves when they told me what they would do with $100.

"I would buy my own house," Jenna told me.

Other kids told me that they would buy $100, if they had $100. The majority of the kids wished to spend their imaginary windfall on video games.

I was touched by the response to one of the other fill-in-the-blanks in the little book.

When I asked my groups to tell me what their mom says to them 100 times over and over again, I expected them to tell me that she tells them to "be quiet," "go to bed," "pick up your toys" or "turn off that video game."

But more than a few of the kids told me something else.

Caillie Fennel told me, "My mom tells me she loves me, loves me, loves me 100 times a day."

mckozik@comcast.net