I tried something new for counting practice today. I went to the online stopwatch web site at http://www.online-stopwatch.com/, used the projector to show it on the screen, and had the students count up to 30 and then count back down to zero. I had to ask them to stop at one point because they were saying the number that would come next -- saying 16 while 15 was still showing. I didn't want those who still don't recognize numbers to become confused or to "learn it wrong," so we talked about it and tried again. I think with a little work this will be a great tool for a quick, daily drill.

We watched a movie again for lunch recess. The students were much better about keeping their voices to a whisper if they absolutely had to say something during the movie. It was a Magic School Bus movie about bats. They referenced vampire bats at one point and some students began to worry that this would be a scary movie. Thankfully, by the end they learned that bats are gentle creatures that eat fruit and insects, not people.