The Benefits of Locks of Love!

Many people benefit from Locks of Love; the children who are receiving the wigs and the people who are making the production of the wigs possible. You can be one of those people! You can make a positive difference in the life of a child who is suffering from an illness that causes hair loss. The past blogs have been examples of how math is incorporated in the Locks of Love process. Math is incorporated in almost every aspect of our lives. Can you think of other ways you use math throughout the day?

I hope that you appreciate the math skills you have learned and I hope you continue to recognize math in the world around you!

Buckets of Water!

Your water is going to get VERY dirty, VERY fast! How many buckets do you think you will need? Will there be a hose available? How much water are you going to put in each bucket?



Let's say you need one gallon of water for every two SUVs that come in. If ten SUVs come in, how many gallons of water will you need?

NCTM Standard: Measurement

NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Car Wash Sponges!

In order to wash the cars you need sponges! Sponges come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. The corners of square sponges would work best when cleaning small, tight areas of the car (like cleaning the tires). You could also find circle, rectangular, and oval shaped sponges.


You would need to make sure you have enough sponges to wash all the cars. Make sure to buy in bulk!

If 25 cars came to your car wash, can you estimate how many sponges you might need?

NCTM Standard: Geometry
NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Car Wash Prices!

Now that you have decided to make a poster for your car wash, you need to decide how much to charge. $5 per car is a great price! Gee, math shows up everywhere!

If you charge $5 per car and 8 cars are washed in the first hour. How much money would you make?

NCTM Standard: Numbers and Operations

Car Wash!

Another fundraising idea would be to hold a car wash with your friends! First, you need to advertise for the event. Let's say you create a poster of a car stopped at a stop sign. Geometry is used because you have to draw the shape of the car, circles for the tires, and an octagon for the stop sign.

NCTM Standard: Geometry

Selling Baked Goods!

Can you solve these money problems?

You decide to sell your cookies for 25 cents, brownies for 50 cents and cupcakes for 50 cents.

*One man comes to your table and asks for 2 cupcakes, 1 cookie and 1 brownie. How much does he owe you?

*A young girl comes to your table and buys 2 brownies and a cupcakes? How much does her total come to?

*A woman comes to your table and asks for 3 cupcakes, 3 cookies and 1 brownie. How much does this woman owe you?

NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Baking Time!

Let's see if you can solve these baking questions:

If it takes 1 hour to make 50 cookies, how many hours would it take to make 250 cookies?

If it takes 45 minutes to make 25 brownies, how many minutes would it take to make 100 brownies? Can you convert this to hours?

NCTM Standard: Measurement (time)

NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Bake Sale Recipes!

Another fundraising idea is having a bake sale!

Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1) Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick cookie sheets). In large bowl, beat cake mix, butter, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, or mix with spoon. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
2) Onto ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by slightly less than tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart.
3) Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are set (centers will be soft). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

The Ultimate Brownie Recipe
8- 1 ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 cup butter
5 eggs
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.
2) Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat; set aside. In a mixer, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at high speed for 10 minutes**. Blend in chocolate mixture, flour and salt until just mixed. Stir in the nuts. Pour into prepared pan.
3) Bake for 35-40 minutes. (Don't overbake.) Cool and frost if desired, but that is not necessary.

NCTM Standard: Measurement

Clothing Drive Prices!

So, let's say on the first day of your clothing drive this is what you receive:

Clothing------Prices

5 shirts---------$4 each

3 pairs of jeans------$5 each

2 pairs of sweatpants--$3 each

How much money did you make on the first day of your clothing drive?

NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Clothing Drive!

Donating your hair is not the only way to support the Locks of Love Foundation. Donating money to pay for the labor that is being put into making the wigs is just as important.

You could hold a clothing drive asking everyone to donate all their old clothes. You can bring all the clothes you collect to a place like Plato's Closet or the Goodwill and receive money in return for the clothes. That money can then be donated to the Locks of Love cause.

Let's say you hold a clothing drive from Saturday, May tenth of this year until Saturday, May seventeenth. Can you write out this whole week of dates in month/day/year form?

What if you hold a clothing drive from August second to August ninth? Can you write out the dates now?

NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Shipping Hair from Around the Country!

Now that you found out how far Burlington, VT is from West Palm Beach, FL; can you find out how far these cities are:

New York City, New York

Boston, Massachusetts

Los Angeles, California

San Francisco, California

Austin, Texas

Nashville, Tennessee

Burmingham, Alabama

Juneau, Alaska

Orlando, Florida

Springfield, Illinois

Which city is the closest to West Palm Beach, FL? Which is the farthest away?

NCTM Standard: Measurement

Shipping Hair to Locks of Love!

Once the hair is cut and you have a cool new hair-do, it is ready to ship! The Locks of Love headquarters is located at:
234 Southern Blvd
West Palm Beach, FL 33405


If you are from Burlington, VT, how far would the hair have to be shipped?

• You can use a map that has a distance key on it so you can measure the distance with a ruler.

OR

If you have access to the internet, Google Maps is another great resource!

NCTM Standard: Measurement

Weighing Hair!

Once a ponytail is cut it can be weighed on a scale.

• If Jessica's hair weighs 13 ounces and Heather's hair weighs 9 ounces, how many more ounces does Jessica's hair weigh?


• If Jordan's hair weighs 14 ounces and Casey's hair weighs 10 ounces, how much does their hair weigh in all?

NCTM Standard: Measurement

NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Making a Wig!

Before the hair is cut it must be dry and tied into a ponytail at the nape of the neck. It takes 6-10 ponytails (at 10 inches long or more) to make one hair piece.

• If it takes 7 ponytails to make one wig and 8 ponytails to make another wig, how many ponytails are used in all?
  
  
• If it takes 10 hours to make one wig, how many hours will it take to make 6 wigs?

NCTM Standard: Number and Operations

Wig Colors!

The Locks of Love foundation welcomes all different hair colors: black, dark brown, light brown, blonde, dirty blonde, strawberry blonde, and red.

Can you solve this math problem?

100 people donated their hair to Locks of Love. 5 people had red hair, 10 had strawberry blonde hair, 15 had black hair, 20 had dirty blonde hair, and 50 had dark brown hair.

According to this math problem: is it likely that...

• Locks of Love will make more red wigs than dirty blonde wigs?
  
• Locks of Love will make more dark brown wigs than black wigs?
  
• Locks of Love will make more strawberry blonde wigs than dirty blonde wigs?

NCTM Standard: Probability

Measure Your Head!

The Locks of Love organization focuses on providing hair pieces for children because most wigs sold by retailers are made to fit adult heads.

Is your head bigger than an adults? Measure your head with a tape measure. Place the end of the tape measure in the middle of your forehead, hold it in place. Wrap the tape all the way around your head until you return to the same spot. How many inches is it? Then measure the head of your parent, grandparent or other adult. Is there a big difference? Compare your findings with the rest of your class.

NCTM Standard: Measurement

Average Length of the Class!

Do you have measuring tape in your classroom? Can you measure each students hair length (including those with short hair) and find the average length of the class? Use a chart to help you keep track!

NCTM Standard: Algebra