Resource: 100's Day

Being able to count to 100 is a significant developmental milestone for younger students. Often, schools plan activities designed to celebrate the 100th day of school. Activities designed around 100, like those featured in this video, help children develop an appreciation for a number that, in the adult world, has long stood as a benchmark of longevity (age) and achievement (a perfect score or rating). A number—whether it's 100, 9, or 66—has very little meaning in and of itself. It takes on significance, however, when put in the context of observation and measurement.

Science is a process for acquiring knowledge that depends on making careful observations of objects and events in our universe and then forming theories that explain these observations. Measuring the things we observe allows us to make comparisons with respect to physical properties, such as size and weight. Units have been developed for all kinds of things that we measure in our lives, including size and weight, but also distance, height, speed, time, and age. Units of measure are important because they tell us what a quantity represents. A distance of 20 is meaningless unless we know whether the unit of measurement is, for example, feet, meters, kilometers, or miles. By using units of measure, students learn to recognize that numbers are often used to describe and compare physical properties of objects.

As students experience different numbers put in context, they can begin to appreciate scale. For instance, 10 cookies may seem like a lot of cookies. But compared with 20 cookies, it's only half as many. Next to 100 cookies, a batch of 10 is a relatively small portion. Similarly, students can easily envision how far 10 steps might take them. But 100 steps? Only after experiencing how far 100 steps can take them can they begin to comprehend how much greater 100 is than 10 in the context of distance.

Concrete experiences in describing the properties of objects, sorting objects, and comparing and contrasting objects, as demonstrated in this video, pave the way for students to develop meaningful concepts for what we observe and measure in our everyday lives.

To view a collection of images of some of the tools we use to make observations and measurements, check out Observe, Make, Measure.

To see an example of how measurements can help determine how much fun an amusement park ride is, check out Waterslides.

• How would the height of the column of 100 blocks change if larger blocks were used? Smaller blocks? Blocks of a different color?
• What would a column of blocks look like if 50 blocks were used? Two hundred? Five hundred?
• What would 300 falling blocks sound like as compared to 100? As compared to 25?
• Can you find something that you have 100 of in your classroom or at home?
• If you took 100 giant steps on the playground, how far do you think you would travel?