Talking Mathematics

Elicia Briggs

Mathematics at GPS

We love talking about mathematics at Greenvale Primary School! Using the photo of Hector the Guinea Pig have a chat about bubble wrap - a most marvellous invention. There are some maths questions below the photo for you to work through together. 

Bubble wrap is meant for work time, but it’s the best toy. It’s that packing material that comes in clear plastic sheets, with rows and rows of little air-filled bumps. They’re lined up in a hexagon pattern, each bubble surrounded by 6 more, like a bee’s honeycomb. When you pinch a bubble, it makes a perfect popping sound…so you can’t help but pop the bubble next to it, and the next. If you have a really big sheet, you can lay it on the floor and jump on it to pop lots of bubbles at once. Kids love it, grown-ups love it…even guinea pigs want to try it. So it’s no surprise that today is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Find some bubble wrap and get popping!

Can you solve these problems? 

Level A

A bubble-wrap bubble is about the size of your fingertip. See if you can spot 3 things that size in your room.

Level B 

If Snickers the guinea pig (shown here) pops bubbles 1, 2 and 3, what numbers are the next 4 bubbles she pops?  Bonus: If a row has 16 bubbles and you pop 1, how many bubbles are left to pop?

Level C.

If a piece of bubble wrap has a row of 5 bubbles, then 6 bubbles, then 5, then 6, and you pop half of them, how many bubbles are left for Snickers to pop?  

Level D 

If on a 20-row sheet, half the rows have 11 bubbles each and half the rows have 10 each, how many bubbles do you have? See if you can find a shortcut to add it up!

Taken from http://bedtimemath.org/fun-math-bubble-wrap/

Elicia Briggs

Primary Maths Specialist