I found this neat activity to work on understanding place value.  I knew the boys would be eager to at least try it because of the marshmallows!  They were eager to try it, but not so eager to do the number activity associated with it.  They just wanted to build snowmen like we did one time before.  I convinced Simon to at least show me a couple of the numbers with the cereal on the toothpicks and then I gave them pretzel sticks and chocolate chips and they went to town building!  Luckily he showed me he has a pretty darn good grasp of place value anyway.  Good fine motor work for Owen.  I had given him a few small numbers to create with the cereal, just trying to give him an idea of what Simon was learning.  He at least gave it some thought.