Over at “overthinking my teaching,” Chris notes a workbook with graphics of jars of bugs, overlaid with the numerals that students are supposed to pay attention to…http://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/number-and-numeration-gone-wrong/
And meanwhile, back at the ranch, I am trying to put together examples of parts being taken away from wholes, to give you parts… so I googled “fun subtraction problems.” FIrst hit was “fun subtraction” game here:
http://www.fun4thebrain.com/subtraction/cargo.html
and wow! a visual puzzle — find the “number” amidst all the visual (and auditory) noise. The action and graphics don’t seem to have anything to do with … anything.
Back to looking for something besides “john had 10 apples. He ate 3. How many does he have left?” I suppose I can at least have a mad marshmallow monster eat them…
Resource Room Dot Net Blog 
Opus the Poet
July 28, 2013
“John has 10 apples, the StaPuft marshmallow man used 3 to make a dozen apple-marshmallow treats. How many apples does John have left and how much apple is in each treat?”
xiousgeonz
July 28, 2013
And illustrating that one could cause nightmares 🙂 Love it!
Opus the Poet
July 28, 2013
Actually I took the concept from “Ghostbusters”. 😉
xiousgeonz
July 28, 2013
I should have known that if it gave me a genuine picture in my brain, that it had already been planted there! Now I remember 😉 (It’s what was feeding my original idea, I am *sure* so I appreciate getting it named!)