Some of the students have really taken the Earth Day message to heart -- they've given up their recesses to pick up garbage. Wow! We had a guest reader today, Joshua S.'s grandpa. We learned about the dime and practiced counting mixed coins. This is difficult because it requires students to switch counting methods. For example, to count 1 nickel and 3 pennies they have to count by 5s then switch to counting by 1s. This will require lots of practice for many students so work on it at home as much as possible. I tell them to begin counting the coins with the highest value. Since we've been learning the parts of a plant, students made flowers in art. They cut and glued petals, stems and leaves.