I wrote these for a conservative web product intended for first and second graders. Adults were expected to read the text to the children.

How Many Fortunes?

Wendy met Otter at the park.

"Look!" Wendy said. "I have a big bag of fortune cookies!"

"Let's eat!" Otter said. He broke open a cookie and took out the paper. "It says my lucky number is 2!" The cookie crunched when he ate it.

Wendy opened a cookie, too. But there was nothing inside! "I didn't get a fortune!" She ate her cookie anyway.

How many cookies have Otter and Wendy eaten? How many fortunes have they gotten?

How Many Cookies?

Wendy and Otter ate an entire bag of fortune cookies!

"I feel woozy," Otter said.

"I think we ate too many cookies," Wendy said.

"How many did we eat?" Otter said.

"We ate nine cookies that had fortunes," Wendy said. "And we ate three cookies that didn't have fortunes."

How many cookies did Otter and Wendy eat all together?

How Many People?

Wendy joined a salsa band. Now she was going to play her drums on stage!

"There are a lot of people here!" Wendy told Percy before the show. "It looks like hundreds of people! I'm so nervous!"

"There aren't that many people," Percy said. "Let me count them."

All the chairs had people in them.

There were four rows of chairs. Every row had ten chairs.

Plus, there were three chairs in front.

How many people were in the audience?

Mangoes for Everyone!

"Yikes!" Percy said. "There are 43 people here. That means we need 43 mangoes!"

"Don't worry," Coco said. "I have boxes and boxes of mangoes. We can carry them here." She rubbed her back. "But my back hurts!"

"I can carry boxes," Percy said.

"I can carry a few mangoes," Coco said.

Percy and Coco needed 43 mangoes. There were ten mangoes in every box.

How many boxes should Percy get?

How many extra mangoes should Coco carry?