Counting Bat Cookies

I noticed this week, that C (age 5) has taken a step backward with her counting. Suddenly, although she can count off the numbers below 10 and over 20 just fine, she's stumbling through the teens. I've been casually counting everything out loud with her for the past few days, playing Chutes and Ladders, focusing in on the teens, and watching countless Sesame Street counting clips with numbers over 10 at SesameStreet.org.

With C's favorite clips being the ones with The Count, and our unofficial theme, this week, already being bats, it didn't take much imagination when it came to snack time - bat cookies were kind of a "duh".

We made them pretty much the same as our bat cookies from last year, only smaller, using the clean top of a salt shaker to cut circles out of a half batch of sugar cookie dough (click here for the recipe).


We cut 20 circle bodies, and squished them out little on the cookie sheet.


Then, we cut 20 more to cut in half with a zigzag cut...


...for wings.


We added chocolate chip eyes, before baking the cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, and once they had cooled completely, I filled a plastic baggie with melted white chocolate chips, snipped a tiny corner, and piped on the numbers from 1 to 20 (I would probably suggest using frosting instead - melted chocolate is very hot, and difficult to pipe on without burning your fingers).


I set them out on plates, and E (age 6) helped her sister count them. "1, one bat cookie, aw-ha-ha-ha...2, two bat cookies...aw-ha-ha-ha..."


Finally, the older children stepped in to demonstrate division with remainders (20 cookies divided among 6 children gives each child three cookies, with two left over for Dad), and multiplication mixed with subtraction (3 bat cookies each with two wings makes 6 wings, unless two wings fall off while you're moving the cookies to the plates, leaving only 4 wings).

Tip: If you let the cookies cool completely before removing them from the cookie sheet, the wings are more likely to stay attached.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Oh, and I'll be linking this post to a new meme - Watcha Making Wednesdays - hosted by the Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M., and to Math Monday at Love2Learn2Day.