Cookie Jar/Hungry Monster

I was lucky to have received a second-hand copy of "Spring Surprises" by Toni Bauman and June Zinkgraf. It's full of amazing activities and tips, one of which is Broken Cookies (pg.74). The idea is to cut out cookies from card stock and print 2-3 math sentences with the same answers or synonyms which the kids then match up like a puzzle.

I decided to add my own flare to the activity by making a container to store the cookie bits once they've been matched. You can only put the whole cookie in the jar or feed them to the monster.

Cookie Jar

Materials

• Image of a cookie jar 
• card stock
• scissors
• glue
• small envelope

Assemble

I found a picture of a cookie jar in Clipart and printed it in full view on a card stock. (So it's as big as it can get on the page). If you print it on white card stock you can have the students decorate it themselves, otherwise you can use a color card stock. Then cut out the contour and cut off the lid.







On the back of the jar glue the bottom section of the envelope with about one centimeter hanging over the top.

Fold the envelope flap down on the cookie jar. Glue the lid piece to the envelope flap so that it matches up with the cookie jar. Cut off the excess of the envelope. Now when you push back the lid the envelope will open showing a pouch behind the cookie jar.

To hide the envelope on the back you can glue the jar to another piece of card stock and cut it out again. The pouch will be trapped inside and only viewable when the jar is open.


Hungry Monster

Materials

• Image of a monster with a wide mouth
• card stock
• scissors
• glue
• small envelope

Assemble

 As with the cookie jar I found an image and printed it on card stock as a full page. I cut out the mouth (cutting further straight to the edge of the picture) and contour, but left the edge on the bottom because his lower jaw is too small.

Flip the monster pieces backward and line them up, then glue the envelope down (address writing part facing you) so that the bottom edge lines up as close as possible to the bottom of the monster.







Turn the monster back around and pull the little bit of the envelope flap that will be left out through the mouth. You can color it red and leave it as a tongue or cut it off. Reinforce the back with another piece of card stock and you're all done!

 
Why bother?

Two semesters of Math classes told me teachers were suppose to move away from drilling students with basic facts and instead teach students to have a number sense. So rather than Mad Minute, show students Mathematical combinations and encourage perceptiveness by using different patterns to cut up the cookies or different colors of cookies. You can also color-coordinate different operations (yellow = add, red= multiply, etc) to help exceptional students remember what they're practicing.