When you plant a bunch of roses, tulips or other flowers in one place, we call that a bed of flowers. But usually we don’t put a real bed around them! The folks at Well Sweep Herb Farm in New Jersey carried a bed frame onto the lawn, filled the space with dirt, and planted petunias, violets, sweet allysum and marigolds. It looks very pretty, but how would it feel to take a nap in there?
Wee ones: How many flower blossom colors can you count in the picture?
Little kids: If you plant 3 yellow tulips, 2 red tulips and a white tulip, how many tulips have you planted in your bed of flowers? Bonus: If you pick the 2 red ones but then plant 4 orange ones, now how many are still planted?
Big kids: If you plant 6 rows of flowers with 4 in each row inside the bed, how many have you planted? Bonus: How many flowers in that line-up don’t touch any edge of the bed?
The sky’s the limit: If you have 36 daisies to plant in your bed of flowers, how many different ways can you line them up in equal rows, if there are always at least as many flowers running from head to foot as across?
Answers:
Wee ones: We count 4 colors: white, purple, pink and yellow.
Little kids: 6 tulips. Bonus: 8 tulips.
Big kids: 24 flowers. Bonus: 8 flowers, since there are 4 flowers from head to foot and 2 from side to side that don’t touch any edge, making a 4 x 2 rectangle.
The sky’s the limit: There are 5 ways to plant them:
1 long row of 36 flowers
2 rows of 18
3 rows of 12
4 rows of 9
and 6 rows of 6.
