Celebrate the 50th Day of School!

Holidays

Sep 12

The 50th Day of School is truly one of my FAVORITE days of the year (besides the 100th day, of course). It’s so much fun to see students get excited about all the learning that they have done in 50 days. I like to celebrate the 50th Day Sock-hop Style! Everything that we do is from my 50th Day Pack and it revolves around the number 50, and is 1950’s themed. Let me show you some of the fun things that I do to make this day so engaging and memorable. By the end of the day, you’ll be tired and sticky from spilled ice cream and root beer, but it is soooo worth it!

Entrance and Table Set Up

I have tons of affordable 50’s Day decor and costume sets linked in my Amazon Storefront HERE for you to browse (including my plastic checkered table covers and Bazooka bubble gum). I always love a good door curtain. It’s always worth the surprised and excited looks on little faces as they walk into our room on the 50th Day. You can buy a door curtain or make one like I did out of butcher paper!
The clip art that I use to make my table “props” and “scatter” is linked HERE. I can’t sell pages of clip art alone because it violates the clip artist’s rights, but you can certainly buy it and cut it out yourself to make table props and scatter if you’d like to!
I use the black and white checkered plastic table cloths linked HERE. I put one on my back table and make it look like my “soda shoppe.” Then I cut the rest of my table cloths to fit student desks. It’s nothing fancy but it sure makes it feel like a special day.

**Student Photo Ops**

I send an email to families about 2 weeks before our 50th day to let them know about the fun festivities that are coming up. I tell them that their child is welcome to dress up “1950’s Style” (think jeans and rolled up white tees for boys, and neck scarves, poodle skirts, and cat-eyed glasses for girls). I usually have a lot of students that love to participate in this fun dress-up day!
I cut out free record images that you can find on Google and glue them to a butcher paper background . When the 50th day arrives, I take each child’s picture against the butcher paper background while they hold a 50th day of school sign (included in my 50th day pack). I have the picture developed and type up a little blurb that says “Happy 50th Day of First Grade!” I fold a piece of card stock and glue the blurb (with the date) and the photo side by side. Families love having this keepsake of their students!

**Teaching About the 1950s**

Most students won’t know a thing about the style, fads, or technology during the 1950’s. Since we do a lot of comparisons throughout the day, it’s important to teach them a tiny bit about life then and today. I don’t go into anything heavy, I keep it light by showing them a PowerPoint that I created of images from the 50’s vs. today. I don’t sell this PowerPoint because I don’t own the rights to any of the images I found on Google, but you can make one!
**Some slide ideas include:**
-Style in the 50’s and style today
-Cars in the 50’s and cars today
-Houses in the 50’s (appliances, technology) and houses today
-Toys in the 50’s and toys today
-Fads in the 50’s (yo-yo’s, Bazooka Gum, hula hooping, etc.) and fads today
-Black and white TV in the 50’s and TV today
-Music in the 50’s (vinyl records) and music today (I also show them the Chubbie Checker Twist Video on YouTube- so fun!)
After learning about what this decade looked like, we are able to make comparisons about life then and now during many of our activities.

Activities for the Day

We pack our day full of fun activities while we listen to sock hop music. My 50th Day Pack includes 5 literacy and 5 math activities. A Few of the activities are pictured above.

Literacy:

-50’s and Today Venn Diagram Comparison

-If I lived in the 50’s… Writing Craftivity

-Me in the 50’s Activity

-What Would You Rather? Activity

-How to Make a Root Beer Float Writing Activity… and YES we do make root beer floats! Bonus points if you play a black and white Looney Tunes cartoon for your students while they eat their floats after they write! They love “watching tv” like a kid in the 50’s!

Math:

-Making 50 in 4 Ways Activity

-What Can You Do in 50 Seconds? Activity

-Dancin’ Doubles Math Game

-Sock Hop Sundaes Math Game

-Cut and Glue Number Puzzles