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Miss Mingo and the 100th Day of School

Many teachers and students are missing that familiar sense of normalcy. Well, thankfully, the time-honored tradition of the 100th day of school is just around the corner. Jamie Harper’s, Miss Mingo and the 100th Day of School is a must-have title for this special day.

In addition to featuring the various combinations of 100 such as two groups of fifty, twenty groups of five, twebty-five groups of four and of course ten groups of ten, the illustrations show various ways to track and record numbers including tally marks, a one hundred chart and a thermometer.

But the book doesn’t just focus on numbers, Harper weaves fun animal facts throughout the text. Readers will find out the average weight of a baby hippo, what an octopus has in its garden and how brown pelicans plummet safely into the sea.

Most of all, you need to check out this book because it can lead to a wonderful social emotional learning lesson. Wait a minute?! How does a STEM book address social emotional learning? Harper does it by having the teacher Miss Mingo, ask her students to make a silly face and hold the pose for 100 seconds. But if you look carefully at that spread, you’ll see that there are other emotions represented on the characters’ faces. Check out Jamie holding up the faces below.

Better yet, watch Jamie’s YouTube video where she shows viewers how to draw happy, sad and shocked faces.

Finally, be sure to check out the teacher’s guide. It’s full of activities that correlate with the Common Core Reading and Math Standards as well as with the Next Generation Science Standards.

Have a wonderful 100th day of school!

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