Not cho Cheez!

Last night I participated in a "Family Math Night" hosted by the university I attend .  We set up at one of the local elementary schools.  My partner and I sponsored a Volume Guess Jar station in which the students were to guess the number of cheese puffs in the gigantic tub we purchased at Sam's Club.  The kid with the closest count to what was really in the tub got to take the cheese puffs home (you may have done something like this with pastel M&Ms at a shower).  It turned out to be quite the hit.  We let the little ones take a "wild guess" while we used a strategy to help the older students...parents and kids, alike,  participated.  My partner and I knew the count (1120) because we multiplied the number of puffs per serving by the number of servings, mind you, we scratched out that info with a pen.  I recall at one point a woman asked how we knew what was in the canister, she had on a school district badge so I just figured she was observing.  I happened to notice the name on the badge because she had the same last name as my best friend.  Anyway, I told her how we knew and she laughed and said, "ah, clever".  There was one little 1st grader that I just knew would win because he guessed 1100...the closest by far!  At the end we looked through all the folded pieces of paper and what did we find?!  The observer had written down the exact number of cheese puffs!  I noticed her looking at the label at one point but, I never saw her drop a "guess" in the basket.  If you knew where to look you could still see the print though I scratched thru it. 

At the end , all of the children sat on folded knees, eager to hear me announce who'd won.  The look of happy anticipation shattered when they heard me announce the woman's name.  I thought, "Surely she won't actually take the puffs.  She will give them to the next kiddo since she didn't even have a child with her but, no.  The ogre did a happy dance, stepping thru children, all the way up to claim her prize.  I hope for every bite she takes she gets a cheese puff sized dimple on her ass.