Counting Petals: Secret Math Hiding in Flowers
Go outside and find a flower. Count its petals. A lily has 3 petals. A buttercup has 5. A black-eyed Susan can have 13. Flowers love these special numbers! Nature is full of math, and once you know how to look, you will see numbers and patterns everywhere.
What You'll Learn
In this lesson you will: - Count petals, legs, and points on things in nature. - Find shapes hiding in flowers and shells. - Spot a pattern and say what comes next.
Numbers on Flowers
Many flowers have the same special number of petals. A lily has 3. A wild rose has 5. A daisy might have many more. Animals have number patterns too. An insect always has 6 legs. A spider always has 8 legs. A starfish almost always has 5 arms. Nature likes to repeat numbers!
When you count petals, gently touch each one as you say its number out loud. That way you do not count the same petal twice or skip one.
Shapes in Nature
Nature makes shapes too. A honeycomb is full of little six-sided shapes called hexagons, all fitting together with no gaps. Slice an apple sideways and you find a star inside made of the seeds. A snail shell curls in a spiral, going round and round, getting bigger. Circles, stars, and spirals are all around you.
Patterns That Repeat
A pattern is something that repeats in the same order. A caterpillar might be green, black, green, black. What comes next? Green! Zebras have stripes: white, black, white, black. Nature loves patterns, and you can guess what comes next by looking at the order.
Match each living thing to its number.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
How many legs does a spider always have?
Look at this pattern: white, black, white, black. What comes next?
Flashcards — click each card to reveal the answer
Nature Number Hunt
1) Go on a walk with a grown-up. 2) Find three things in nature: a flower, a bug, and a shell or leaf. 3) For the flower, count the petals. For the bug, count the legs. For the shell or leaf, look for a shape or a pattern. 4) Draw each one and write its number next to it. Your deliverable is a Nature Number page with three drawings, each labeled with a number or a shape you found.
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