10-Pin Addition (Math Bowling)

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!