Rainy Day Activities A lesson excerpted from : Solving Exciting Word Problems Using Fractions by Heidi Lang & Lisa Allan illustrated by Mike Eustis Copyright 2005 Heidi Lang & Lisa Allan
4:20 PM Page 9 RAINY DAY ACTIVITIES 9
Page 12 Dear Mom and Dad, Did you know the Etch-a-Sketch was developed in the late 1950s by a Frenchman named Arthur Granjean? He called it L ecran Magique (the magic screen). The reverse side of the screen is coated with aluminum powder. XXX OOO Daisy 1. The width of a typical Etch-a-Sketch is 93 4 inches. If you laid 12 Etch-aSketches side by side, how wide would they be? 2. The world s largest Etch-a-Sketch was made by Steve Jacobs of California. He built a large red frame and then laid out 144 standard Etch-a-Sketches inside it. If he had only used 1 12 of the Etch-a-Sketches, how many would he have needed? 3. There is a pocket sized Etch-a-Sketch that is 41 4 inches wide and 33 4 inches tall. A travel Etch-a-Sketch is 6 1 4 inches wide and 51 4 inches tall. a. How much wider is the travel version than the pocket version? b. How much taller? 4. Etch-a-Sketch is sold in 7 20 of the countries in the world today. If there are 200 countries in existence, how many of them sell Etch-a-Sketches? 12
Page 13 Dear Mom, Guess what I know now? Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter in Denmark who made toys, mostly out of wood. He started a toy company in 1932 called LEGO. The name came from two Danish words that mean play well. Ole s son started working in the family toy business and in 1958 invented the plastic interlocking blocks we know as LEGOs! Write soon! Your favorite daughter, Ashley 1. There is a prize called the LEGO Prize that is awarded each year for exceptional efforts on behalf of children. The award is worth $119,638.18. It would be great to win just 1 2 of that prize money! How much would that be? 2. Eight robots in the LEGO warehouse can move 660 crates of LEGOs in one hour. If 16 robots were put to work for 21 4 hours, how many crates of LEGOs would be moved? 3. On average, each person on the planet Earth has 52 LEGO bricks. An average family in the state of Texas is 37 25 people. How many LEGOs does a Texan family likely have? 4. In 1992, the world s largest LEGO castle was built on Swedish TV. It took 40,000 bricks! How many bricks would it take to make a castle 61 4 times as large? 13
Page 14 Dear Daddy, I learned something new today. There is a really popular game called Tiddlywinks! Isn t that a great name? After Joseph Assheton Fincher applied for a trademark for his Tiddledy Winks in 1889, the game became really popular in the 1890s. It is played in 2 teams of 2. Each player gets 6 little round chips called winks and tries to get them into a pot in the middle of a playing mat using something called a squidger. The points are called tiddlies! How cool is that? See you soon! I ve got to go find a squidger! Hugs, Chleo 1. The farthest a wink was ever shot was 913 25 meters by Ben Stares in 1995. If Ben could flip a wink that distance 5 times in a row, how far would the wink travel in all? 2. Edward Wynn set the record for the fastest Tiddlywinks mile. He flipped a wink a mile in just 52 minutes and 10 seconds. What would 3 5 of that time be? 3. The farthest distance ever traveled by a Tiddlywink was 21 5 miles. The player was put in a tiddly wagon and his co-workers moved him along while he winked over and over again! It is 616 miles from Amarillo, Texas, to Houston, Texas. How many times would the player need to set his record in order to travel that distance? 4. The highest a Tiddlywink was ever shot was 115 12 feet. The Eiffel Tower is 1,051 feet high. a. If you could flip a wink 93 times as high as the record height for a Tiddlywink, would it be taller or shorter than the Eiffel Tower? b. By how much? 14
Page 15 Dear Mom and Dad, I learned lots today! Did you know Silly Putty was invented all because of World War II? It s true! In 1944, the United States had its rubber supplies cut off, but they still needed rubber for truck tires, boots, and other stuff for the war. So the government asked companies to make fake rubber. One guy, James Wright, mixed up some stuff in a tube. It was really gooey, so he threw it on the ground. Boy, was he surprised when it bounced! Cool, huh? XXX OOO, Nikki P.S. Send Silly Putty! 1. More than 300,000,000 eggs of Silly Putty have been sold since 1950! That s about 4,500 tons! a. If there are 2,000 pounds in a ton, how many pounds of Silly Putty have been sold since 1950? b. If Binney and Smith produced only 3 4 of that amount, how many pounds of Silly Putty would have been made? 2. Binney and Smith produce about 600 pounds of Silly Putty each day. One day the factory foreman would only allow the machines to operate for 3 4 of a typical day. How many pounds of Silly Putty would be produced in that amount of time? 3. One Silly Putty egg weighs 47 100 of an ounce. a. If your mom bought you 500 Silly Putty eggs, how many ounces would they weigh in all? b. Remember, an ounce is 1 16 of a pound. How many pounds would you have with those 500 Silly Putty eggs? 4. The following recipe will make enough fake Silly Putty for four people. Rewrite the recipe for one person! Then, try making your own Silly Putty at home (be sure to ask an adult to help you with this!): 4 oz. white school glue 1 pt. distilled water 1 tsp. borax powder 15