Count to 100 with a Paper Clip 100 Train Activity

When my daughter was more consistent at getting to the number 10 when counting on her own, and yet numbers even higher than that seem incomprehensible to her, we decided to grasp the concept of 100, a high number, by making a paper clip counting 100 train together. The picture book Crossing by Philip Booth functioned as our picture book inspiration.

Picture Book Inspiration for 100 Learning

The simple train book Crossing by Philip Booth (illustrated by Bagram  Ibatoulline) is a historical fiction picture book depicting a classic locomotive in the first half of the 1900s. It shows the gates lower at a small town railroad crossing. Kids jump and cheer as it passes. They peek at each other underneath the cars and name the brands they see on the train cars. They count the cars (although not every number is shown in the book), and at the last car they yell “caboose!” 

I love the rhythmic rhyme in Crossing, and I also love that the illustrations are so rich. One two-page spread even shows the entire 100-car train! This give it a possible relevance to 

Why Learn 100 As a Preschooler?

Although a preschooler does not need to know how to count so high, understanding the concept of getting to a “huge” number is an important step. We can count high together to come to understand 100 days, 100 bites, 100 train cars, or 100 paper clips. Once we start counting days in school, which I do starting in Kindergarten, making a 100 train will be a great way to celebrate 100 days of school.

The number 100 seems like a huge number to a young child, but by counting one at a time, or by counting to 10 ten times, we can get there together. The satisfaction a young child has when they do make it to 100 the first time is a delightful moment of realization. 

Using Crossing as Inspiration for Number Concepts

As we learn numbers, we started by counting to ten, and found the page in the book that showed the count to ten. After we've read the book at least once, we begin to practice our count to 100. We made the first chain of ten in the colors that my daughter suggested. For the next few groups of ten, I did similar colors and my daughter helped me make sure each was the same length. Then, we put our paper clip 100 train together.

 My preschooler loved seeing the length of our train. We laid our paper clip train next to the full two-page spread of the train in the book so we could see how long both of them were.

At this point, my daughter simply wanted to play with her train. She made shapes out of the long line and made the “train cars” talk to each other. Everything was alive and had a personality for her! 

More Learning Ideas

When my kids were older (or had even a slightly longer attention span), we would do some additional activities. Here are some other ideas for extending the learning with this book.

• Count to 100 together by pointing to the different cars in the book’s illustration.
• Count to 100 by holding up the 100 train.
• Measure how tall she is using paper clip train cars as the standard of measure.
• Find an item in the house that is the same length as our 100 train.
• Review the safety phrase in the beginning of the book. (“Stop. Look. Listen.”) Discuss why these rules are important.
• Make a 100’s chart and mark off the numbers mentioned in the book.
• Visit a train museum and count the cars on a train there. (We have such a museum within a half hour drive of our home and we love to visit!)

Crossing is a fantastic and fun book to read simply for it’s rhyme, rhythm, and illustrations. But it also captures the concept of 100 with the fact that the train itself is 100 cars long. It is a great way to introduce the concept of a large number to a young child.

Get Learning Resources Related to 100

See also the  The Number Train is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.