VENTURA : Lesson That Counts Takes Kids Beyond 99

Unlike the end of the first 100 days of a new presidency, the 100th day of school normally passes without notice.

But E.P. Foster School in Ventura uses the anniversary as a tool for teaching its 580 kindergarten through fifth-grade students about the numerical value of 100.

On Friday, the 100th day of the 1993-94 school year, E.P. Foster students spent the entire day working on projects having to do with the number 100.

Some classes strung necklaces with 100 Cheerios, counting out the crunchy ornaments 10 pieces at a time.

Other students held 100-meter sprints. Some groups of children worked together on murals that included 100 illustrations.

And at the end of the day, all the school’s students gathered on the playground for a grand finale, teacher Judy Neumann said. Eight-year-olds who were born 100 months ago in October, 1985, and students who have had perfect attendance during the first 100 days of school this year received balloons, which they all popped at the same time.

One teacher donned a mask and cape and made an appearance as “Zero the Hero” to remind students of how zeros serve the important role of holding places in the decimal system. “When you write that number 100, the zeros have no value except to reserve that place,” Neumann said.

And all E.P. Foster students counted backward from 100 in unison.

“It’s another way to count,” Neumann said. “It’s another way to look at 100.”

The activities on the concept 100 may be most useful to students in the second grade, who are learning for the first time to do double-digit addition and subtraction, she said.