I'd take them in the carryon, and I would put them in a place where they can be found easily by the person checking the bags.

On another board I frequent, I heard a story once of someone whose child put an entire "bar" of AA's [such as you might buy at Costco] into a carryon so he would have plenty of spares for a handheld game. Apparently, the agent manning the x-ray thought it looked like a strap of large-caliber bullets, and it caused a lot of difficulty.