What Do You Notice? Gumballs

Skills

Primary students (K-2): counting, even numbers, skip counting by twos, comparison

Intermediate students (3-5): probability, fractions, money

Mathematical Background

This is a fun one simply because of the fun gumballs and gumball machine. That said, there is still a lot of math going on. Young students can count the number of different colored gumballs. They can compare colored gumballs to see which color has the least and which color has the most. They can even count all the gumballs to arrive at a total.

If they’re really paying attention, they’ll notice that each color is represented by an even number of gumballs. And they may even figure out a pattern to determine the total number of gumballs (although, admittedly, this may be a little difficult without some guidance):

At a higher level, intermediate students can figure out the total cost for all the gumballs if each one costs 25 cents. Or they can determine the fraction of each color represented. Since there are a total of 30 gumballs, orange would represent 2/30, or 1/15 if they simplify. They could even get into probabilities. For example, the probability of getting a green gumball is one out of three or about 33%.

Sample Student Responses

"One dollar can buy you 4 gumballs"

"10 green gumballs"

"Orange=2, yellow=4, blue=6, pink=8, green=10, 30 gumballs"

"4 gumballs = $1"