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Celebrate Mid-Year With 100th Day of School Activities
Christy Walters
January 6, 2026
Did you know that celebrating the 100th day of school started in California in 1979? It was a way to help students practice counting and number sense. Now, it’s a milestone that marks the midpoint of a traditional 180-day school year.
Help students reflect on school culture, routines, and their experiences using Newsela ELA’s reading, writing, research, and debate 100th day of school activities.
What are the best 100th day of school activities to build ELA skills?
These five activities help students mark the 100th day of school while practicing essential literacy skills. Cover descriptive writing, research, argumentation, and evidence-based reasoning using Newsela ELA’s curated resources.
[How can students write a poem for the 100th day of school?](id-poem)
Writing poetry is a fun and meaningful way for students to reflect on their school experience. Explore mentor texts to identify descriptive and sensory language. Then, guide students to create their own creative poems.
As a class, make a list of 100 descriptive words that describe school. Focus on sensory words related to sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch.
Have students use the list of words to write their own original 100th day of school poems!
[Should schools serve junk food?](id-junkfood)
Students often have strong feelings about cafeteria food. They can use this debate to consider how nutrition, school policies, and student choice affect what they’re served at school. Help students build their argument with resources like:
[How do schools around the world celebrate learning?](id-world)
The 100th day of school is popular in the United States, but what does the school year look like in other countries? A research mini-project helps students compare global experiences and routines with their peers around the world while strengthening their investigation and note-taking skills.
To help students develop their research questions and gather evidence, try these resources:
[Should students be allowed to use cell phones in school?](id-phones)
Cell phones are part of daily life, but should they be part of the school day? Students can look at real examples, challenges, and policies to form their own evidence-based arguments for the topic. Try these activity resources on topics like:
[Do school dress codes or uniforms improve the learning environment?](id-uniform)
Dress codes are one of the most debated school policies. Invite students to explore topics of fairness, equity, cultural expression, and student identity. Students can use these articles on these topics to gather information and support their claims:
New York City’s ban on policies and practices that fuel hair discrimination and violate human rights.
How can teachers explore even more school topics with Newsela?
Newsela’s subject-specific products make it easy to keep students engaged with fresh, relevant content all year long. With 18,000+ leveled articles, videos, and activities, teachers can build literacy skills with topics students care about.
Explore science, ELA, and social studies activities that will get your students excited about learning while tapping into their interest in the Super Bowl.
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