Grade
4

Math in Our World: Making Bracelets

Amy's beads are mostly in 2 trays. One tray has 18 compartments. The other tray has 12. In the smaller tray, 8 compartments have red beads. The others have blue beads. In the larger tray, 6 compartments have green beads. Another 6 have purple beads. 4 compartments have yellow beads. 2 compartments have a mix of colored beads. 3 blue beads, 4 red beads, 1 purple bead, 2 yellow beads, and 3 green beads are not in the trays.

Amy likes to make bracelets. She discovered that storing her beads in egg cartons was a great way to reuse something and organize her beads at the same time.

Each compartment can hold a maximum of 20 beads. She completely filled an 18-count carton and a 12-count carton with beads and still had some left over.

Amy can make a bracelet with 30 beads, a necklace with 60 beads and a keychain with 8 beads.

  1. Show what is happening. Use pictures, models, or numbers.
  2. What do you notice? What do you wonder?
  3. What mathematical questions can you ask about this situation? Answer all the questions you can!
  • Determine how many compartments there are in all. Draw a sketch that shows how many beads Amy could have.
  • How many beads does she have in all? What operation can you use to find the total?
  • Show your work to someone else, and explain your thinking. Did they understand?
  • Ask whether they have any other questions you can answer!

Find something in your house that you could reuse to store some of your toys, collections, or game cards. Ask a question about the number of items you could store in the container that you found.

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Reference for Educators

Sample problems and solutions