My mother-in-law served up Danimals Smoothies during a recent
visit and my sons instantly fell in love with the little yogurty drinks. The next week
when I hit the grocery store, I couldn’t resist buying a pack.
It didn’t take
very long before I came to admire the cute shape of the bottles and went to the
recycling bin to rescue them. With a little red ribbon, a paper-maché
Christmas ball, and a cardboard box, I was ready to make a math activity sure
to bowl my son over. (ha ha)
I painted the Christmas ball with acrylic paint, clipped the hanging string
off, and added three black dots to simulate the finger-holes in a bowling ball.
This ball worked perfectly because, like a real bowling ball, it didn’t have
much bounce.
Then I handed my son the 10 empty Danimals bottles and had
him peel off the labels. I added a ring of ribbon with hot glue. Next, we placed some star stickers on the bottom of the shallow cardboard box where the pins should sit and
cut one short side of the rectangular box off.
I gave my son a worksheet I’d made and let him bowl away. He
rolled twice, recording the number of pins he knocked down each time. Then he
added the numbers together to total the pins that he knocked down in the frame. Note: Someone will need to remove the knocked-over pins after each roll and reset them at the end of the frame. After six frames, he added the numbers together. (I gave him a 1-100 numbers grid for help.)
He played four games (whoa!) and asked to forego a new activity the
following day to bowl some more. Thanks to this game, he’s getting better at
bowling AND addition!
Download a blank score sheet here.
Find other great math ideas and activities at Love2Learn2Day's Math Monday Blog Hop!
Love this! We will be getting into addition facts soon and D would love this for sure! Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteHOW FUN! I am definitely on my way to the recycle bin right now to rescue some of those bottles. I can't wait to do this with my kids!
ReplyDeleteGREAT idea so funny I saw this at It's Playtime. I just said today we need to save some water bottles and make a bowling game then I found your post. Yay, now I know what works.
ReplyDeleteVery cool- my little man loves math- we will be doing this soon! Thank you for posting it on The Sunday Showcase!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fantastic idea! Too bad it wouldn't work with Capri Suns. lol
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ReplyDeleteThis idea is genius! My daughter sits down with pencil and paper and adds numbers, by herself, just for fun. I can't wait to give her a fun game, I know she'll love, to keep the desire for math going!
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome!
ReplyDeleteI can't get the Blank Score Card to come up in Google Docs. Any help??
ReplyDeleteTara
misssumner@gmail.com
I'd like to download the Blank Score Card, but unfortunatelly I Can't.
ReplyDeletepanka1975@gmail.com
I love this idea but can't get the scorecard to download. Has anyone been able to get it lately? I work with special needs kids and they would LOVE this.
ReplyDeleteLeslie, I re-uploaded the PDF to Google Docs and changed the link. Try it again and if you are still unsuccessful, send me a message and I'll attach it to an e-mailed reply. My address in on the "about" page.
ReplyDeleteI will have to remember this game for my daughter. I made a bowling game last year using Danimnals containers, but decorated them to look like snowmen. http://tonsoffunpreschoolactivities.blogspot.com/2011/01/tot-school-snowman-week.html
ReplyDeleteOh, Jody, you Danimals snowman is ADORABLE!! You're right, they DO look like snowmen. How clever! Thank you for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteI got it! Thanks so much! I'll be playing this with my class this week.
ReplyDelete