Austintown Elementary celebrates 100th day of learning

February 22, 2014 at 12:03a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

Something strange happened to Mia Brajer when she got to school: She suddenly aged 94 years.

“Today is the 100th day of school that we get to celebrate,” the 6-year-old Austintown Elementary School kindergarten student excitedly explained. “We’re dressing up like we’re 100 years old.”

Mia was one of the youngsters in Jen Kalouris’ class who wore clothing and accessories for that effect while participating in a number of activities, as part of a schoolwide effort Friday to celebrate the 100th day of school. Beforehand, the children were asked to dress as if they were a century old.

Mia added that her counting skills have increased since the start of the school year.

Throughout the day, Kalouris

implemented activities and projects with themes related to the number 100. The larger goal was to better prepare the youngsters to meet certain state standards, she noted.

“We’ve worked hard to count to 100 by ones and tens and celebrate how far they’ve come since the beginning of the year,” Kalouris continued.

To that end, she read the Joseph Slate book “Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day,” which offers vignettes of 26 characters, each of whom brings 100 items to school. The names also are in alphabetical order and incorporate each letter of the alphabet.

After the story, Kalouris divided her students into teams before handing the 5- and 6-year-olds clipboards with papers on which they were to write up to 100 words they saw while exploring the room.

“They’re like word detectives,” their teacher said with a chuckle.

It didn’t take 6-year-old Anastasia Dilts long to come up with eight words, including “alligator” and “anchor.”

Anastasia dressed in a gray wig, small, narrow-framed glasses and several necklaces to look the part of a 100-year-old person. When she’s not enjoying school activities — and doing her best to emulate a centenarian — Anastasia spends time playing soccer and with her older sister, she explained.

“Nice,” she quietly said when asked to describe her teacher in one word.

Six-year-old Zachary Hans diligently worked on adding several words to his list at the last minute before his classmates broke for recess.

Nevertheless, he came up with his own eight words when asked what Kalouris means to him: “She is the best teacher in the world.”