Fifth-grade students at Fortis Academy recently celebrated a milestone in their educational journey, by marking their 1000th day of school. “If the student has been in school since kindergarten, the 100th day of school in fifth-grade equals their 1000th day!” said Erin Dixon, principal at Fortis Academy.
Students recognized this achievement by completing fun math problems, writing a reflection piece, and crafting sentences that explained various things they have learned this year on strips of colorful paper to create a 1000-link learning chain. The chain is now hanging in the fifth-grade hallway to celebrate the accomplishment.
Three fifth-grade teachers from the school joined together to mark this milestone for their students. The three kept the celebration a secret until the morning of and made the announcement with a display on the whiteboard that read “Happy 1000th Day!”.
Many students thought their teachers made a mistake thinking it was only the 100th day of school, which was being celebrated by the kindergarten students at the time.
“When we explained that it was actually the 1000th day of learning for them, they were astonished,” said Sandy Bock, fifth-grade teacher at Fortis. “When the students started to create their strips to add to the learning chain, they really took their time to brainstorm the things that they have learned and done in school.”
Examples of what the students wrote include:
- "I learned to write my name."
- "I learned to make friends."
- "I learned about Martin Luther King Jr."
- "I learned about the moon and stars."
- "I learned to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers."
“The students enjoyed sharing what they had written with their peers, and the teachers loved hearing them reflect on their many days of learning and growth,” said Bock. “The students were so excited that day.”