May

I BETCHA!
T h e m e : PROBABILITY

B U L L E T I N B O A R D IDEA

1. Divide the bulletin board into two parts. Cover lower half with light
blue paper and upper half with yellow paper.
2. Reproduce the design and color the frog and lily pads in greens, yellows,
and whites. Make flowers pink. Make fly dark brown. Cut a large sheet

239
240 May

of white paper for fly's bubble and print inside "What's my probability
of flying away?"
Cut I BET I CAN CATCH HTM from dark-colored paper.

ACTIVITIES

1. Place one blue, three red, and two yellow transparent chips on the over-
head. Ask the children what the probability is of picking a red chip with
your eyes closed? Answer: 3 out of 6 Have the children make a grid
to show the probabilities of picking a yellow and a blue chip. Show the
probabilities of picking a red chip followed by a blue chip Answer:
3/6 x 1/5 or 3/30 or 1/10 Have the children record all the possibilities
of picking a red, a yellow, and a blue chip with replacements each time.
Then have them figure out various possibilities of combinations they
select such as a blue, followed by two yellow without replacements.
2. Present a class problem: What is the probability of a thumb-tack landing
point up after a toss? After 10 tosses? After 100 tosses? Have the class
pair up and design a tally record sheet. Ask each pair of children to
figure out the probabilities for the tosses. Can someone make a predic-
tion after a certain number of tosses?
Formula: P(up) = number falling point up/100
3. Have the children work in pairs and give each pair of children two pen-
nies. Have them record what the probability is that heads will show
after a toss of one penny. Then try to figure out the probability of tossing
two coins that fall heads up. Most standard curricula will show these
probabilities.

P R O B L E M - S O L V I N G IDEAS FOR J O U R N A L S

May W o r d Problems

1. PROBABILITIES. What is the probability that you will receive an A,

B, C, D, or F in math? (Provide the children with the necessary grade
information for them to determine their chances for these grades.)
2. NAME PROBABILITIES. Print your first, middle, and last name in
large letters across the top of the page. Make up five problems showing
the probabilities of picking a vowel from your name, of picking an S,
of picking another consonant. Make a bar chart showing all the pos-
sibilities of letters that can be selected from your name and their prob-
abilities. For example, ELLEN: The probability of picking an E is 2:5;
L is 2:5; and an N is 1:5. Answers will vary.
3. FACIAL BALANCE. Find a large picture of a face in a magazine. Cut
it exactly in half. Glue it into your journal. Draw the other half using
reflective symmetry to complete the picture.
I Betchal 241

4. SPITBALL BASKETBALL. Make a bunch of small paper balls. Count

the number. Toss them one at a time into a wastepaper basket. In your
journal, keep track of the number of balls that land in the wastepaper
basket with each set of balls that is tossed. Toss the total set of balls
ten times. Record the number basketed. From your data figure out the
average number of balls that fall into the basket from all of your
tosses. Answers: vary
5. LETTER FREQUENCIES. Make a list of all of the letters of the al-
phabet and ten digits in your journal. Then select two sentences from
your math book and tally the number of times each letter or digit
appears in these two sentences. Make a line or bar chart showing your
findings. What percent of the time did each letter or digit ap-
pear? Answers: vary
6. CANS OR VEGGIES. Count the number of canned food items you have
in your pantry. What is the ratio of cans of vegetables to cans that do
not contain vegetables? Cans of fruit to cans that do not contain fruit?
The ratio of canned vegetables to fruit to all the cans in the pantry?
Make a drawing of how you solved this problem. Answers: vary
7. MONEY HONEY. You and your four friends received the following
babysitting payments: $5, 3.50, 1.75, 2.60, and 0.50. You all want to
share your money equally. How much will each of you receive?
Answer: $2.67
8. TEACHER FEATURE. Your teacher asked you to put away 6 math
books, 3 poetry books, 9 language arts books, 8 spellers, 5 health books,
and 5 science books. You decided you wanted to stack them in even
piles on the shelf. How many books will you place in each
pile? Answer: 6
9. AVERAGE PET PER FAMILY. List your classmates' names in your
journal. Record the number of pets each classmate has. What is the
average number of pets your class has? What is the average number
of pets per family? Answers: vary
10. DATA ANALYSIS. From the data you collected on pets from your class-
mates, make a picture chart that shows the number of dogs, cats, fish,
gerbils, hamsters, birds, horses, and other pets your class has. What
is the probability that a classmate has a dog? a cat? a bird? Answers:
vary
11. MAY SALES. Picnic supplies cost $1.52 for plates, $0.69 for plastic
ware, $1.18 for napkins,.and $0.89 for paper cups. Everything went on
sale with 25% off. What is the average cost of picnic supplies at the
regular price and at a sale price? Answer: Regular price = $4.28 /
4 = $1.07; Sale Price = $4.28 - 1.07 = $3.21
12. ICE CREAM SPECIALS. Make a tally of your classmates' favorite ice
cream. Then show the most popular choice or mode. Order the data
from most popular to least popular. What is the median selection? What
is the least favorite? Answers: vary
242 May

13. GAME FOR A RAINY DAY. Make a bunch of dots all over a sheet o f
paper in your journal. Be neat! Find a friend. Take turns by joining
two points with a straight line. No line can cross another line and a
player may not draw more than one line through a point. The last
player to draw a line connecting two dots is the winner.
14. NUMBER PLEASE? What is the difference between 999,999,000 and
999,899,001? Answer: 99,999
15. COMPASS AND CIRCLES. With a compass make a set of about 1 2
different-sized circles. Label the circles from A to L. Now order the
circles from smallest to largest using the letters and writing them in
order. Answers: vary
16. FINDING LINES OF SYMMETRY. Print each letter of the alphabet
using upper case letters only and find the line of symmetry for each
letter. Fold one of the sheets of paper in your journal in half towards
the binding. On the fold write your name in cursive. Open the fold.
Can you reproduce your name along the fold applying reflective sym-
metry?
17. DECK OF CARDS. Show the probabilities of drawing the following
cards from a deck of 5 2 cards: an ace (4/52), a heart (13/52), a king of
spades (1/52), a four (94/52), a red card (26/52 o r 1/2), and a queen of
clubs (4/52). Make up a probability game using the cards.
18. SHAPES ALIVE! Draw the following shapes in your journal using a
straight edge and protractor: a square, a rectangle, a trapezoid, a rhom-
bus, an equilateral triangle, and an isosceles triangle.
19. ANGLE FANDANGLE. Use a protractor and draw an obtuse triangle
and an acute triangle. Label the angles.
20. POLYGON RIDDLES. Make up a riddle for your teacher to solve that
will describe a parallelogram. Don't tell your teacher what the shape
is until he or she gives you the correct answer. However, answer the
teacher's questions with a yes or no.

CALCULATOR PROBLEMS FOR JOURNALS

21. Find 2 0 % of $1.20, $46.96, $395.90. Answers: 24C, $ 9 , 3 9 2 , $ 7 9 . 1 8

22. Find 3 3 % of $0.95, $5.98, $175.98.
23. Find 7 5 % of $10.85, $59.70, $598.50.
24. What is the price of a stereo that costs $598.50 at 7 5 % off? Answer:
$149.62
25. What is the price of the stereo after it is reduced 7 5 % and then
50%? Answer: $74.81
I Betcha! 243

PROBABILITY G A M E

Penny Toss

Materials: Grid
10 pennies
Rules: What is the probability that a penny will not land on a line? Have
the children make an educated guess. Then, how many pennies will land on a
line if 10 pennies are tossed? Have the children compare their educated guesses
with the results of their tosses.
Formula: P = n/100