How Many Hula Hoops?

Apparently there was an advert where hula hoops (the small, crunchy, eating variety) were stacked in a pile beside Big Ben (the clock on the Houses of Parliament in London) from top to bottom to see how many there would be.

One of our Primary 3 pupils thought it would be much more interesting to find out how many would stretch from the school to Big Ben – it turned out to be quite a lot, since we were in Edinburgh in Scotland!

You will have GREAT fun investigating this!

The children drive the investigation with their ideas, but you have a pre-thought-out idea of where it is likely to go.

The first step is to work out how many hula hoops fit into one metre.

It is wonderful to watch the children trying to work this out. There aren't enough in one packet to fill a whole metre, so some may decide to move hula hoops from the end of the line to the front, others may work out how many there are in half a metre and double it, and others may investigate the number in 10cm and then multiply by 10.

You can then have a delightful time going round the room and getting each group to demonstrate their method.

After that you are likely to be onto one of the auto websites to find out the distance from your place to Big Ben.

And then the work with Big Numbers begins!!

Ages 7-10    Printable materials (pdf) - 7 pages of teachers notes and 3 pupil copymasters.