Making "Snack Time" into "Learning Time"

How many people can honestly say that they LOVE snack time?  I had never been a huge fan of snack time because it was like a necessary evil.  I had to give the kids something to eat, but it always took up too much of my "teaching time" and ran away into the realm of play time.  At the end of last year I thought of something amazing.  Turn snack to into math time!  Yes, my favorite time of the day was soon born...SNACK MATH!!! My kids last year loved it and now my new little cuties do to.

So how does this go?  Well, at the start of our math time after our math lesson sheet is passed out (we use Envision) I pass out the snack of the day.  Presto-change-o, snack is magically transformed into counters.  We use our snacks (Fruit Loops, Goldfish, pretzels, etc.) to help us with our math problems for the day.  I give the kids word problems or scenarios and they use their snacks to solve them.  Then, while they are doing their independent work, they are able to enjoy their snack and/or continue to us them as counters.  By the end of the math lesson the kids have finished their work and snack has been served.