Johnny wants to learn how to bowl but first wants to master keeping score. His teacher shows him how scores are calculated for strikes and spares over multiple frames. Johnny learns that strikes add the next two frame scores, and spares add the next frame score. He practices calculating scores but is surprised to find out multiple strikes are also scored differently by adding to earlier frames. Though Johnny now understands scoring, he realizes he still needs to learn how to actually bowl.

1. Johnny’s Trip to the Bowling Alley
By: Brian C. Schroeder
RED6545

2. • Johnny is a 10 year old boy
who loves all kinds of sports.
The only sport he doesn’t
know anything about is
bowling. His teacher told him
that bowling involves math
in order to keep score.
Johnny decided that it was
time for him to learn how to
bowl and he wants to make
sure he is a master at
keeping score first.
Have you ever been bowling before?
How many pins do you have to knock down?
Do you know what it is called when you knock them all down?

3. • The first thing Johnny
did was obtain a blank
score sheet to see how
many frames are in a
game of bowling. He
realized there are ten
frames in one game.
• Next, he figured out
there are ten pins to
knock down. Johnny
thought he had all the
information he needed
to be ready to bowl, but
he was wrong. Knocking
down all the pins each
time means you have to
add differently. What do you think the word frames means in this story?
Johnny thinks he has all the information he needs, but he is
missing some important information. Please record in your
notebooks what information you think johnny is still missing.

4. We are going to practice using the score sheet below
and learn along with Johnny about the information he
doesn’t know.
I am handing you a score sheet. Please take a look at it and place it in your notebooks.

5. • Johnny’s teacher sits down with him and shows
him how to add the first 3 frames. (Point to the
first three frames and copy along with Johnny
and his teacher)
• X(X means strike and you knocked all the pins
down in one shot) = 10 points
• 9/(/ means spare and you knocked the rest of the
pins down on the second shot) = 9 + 1 = 10
• 5/ = 5 + 5 = 10
• X 9/ 5/ = 10 (X) + 10 (9/) + 10 (5/) = 30
We already learned an X = 10 pins. What does the symbol / mean using clues from the story?
Take a look at the picture. Do you think 30 is the correct answer for frame three? Why or why not?

6. • X 9/ 5/ = 10 (X) + 10 (9/) + 10 (5/) = 30
• Johnny seems confused because the number on
frame three shows a 52 and they only have an
answer of 30 so far. Johnny’s teacher explains the
way to reach 52.
• The 9/ in frame two adds an extra 10 to frame
one. That’s why we have 20 in frame one. The 5/
in frame three adds an extra 5 to frame two.
That’s why we have 35 in frame two. Lastly the 7
in frame four adds 7 to frame three. That’s how
we get 52 in frame three.
What was the missing information that Johnny discovered with the help from his teacher?

7. Johnny says, “Wow I didn’t realize how difficult it is
to figure out bowling scores.”
Johnny figures out that he has the following total
for the first three frames.
10+10 for frame one.
10+5 for frame two.
10+7 for frame three.
20 + 15 + 17 = 52.
Have your students check the math in their notebooks.
Do you all think that Johnny has all the information he needs now
or is there still something else he needs to know?
Take a look at the three strikes in frames five, six, and seven. Check the math
and see if all strikes uses the same rules that we learned for strikes and spares.

8. • Johnny is so excited that he
learned everything he needs to
know about keeping score in
bowling. His teacher says, “Not
so fast. You didn’t realize that
when you have multiple strikes
together you have to add a bit
differently as well.” Johnny can
not believe that there are more
rules to learn about bowling.
Johnny thinks how hard
bowling is and he hasn’t even
learned how to bowl yet.
Did the math rules work with multiple strikes?
Can you think of other sports that involve math to figure out scores?
How can this be helpful to you even though computers do the work for you when you’re bowling?

9. Take a look at frames five, six, and seven.
The scores goes from 91 to 139. (What is the
difference?)
Frame four says 61 so 30 pins were added between
frame four and five. Where did they come from? 10
+ 10 + 10. The two additional +10 came from the
two strikes in frame six and seven. When there is
more than one strike together they get added to
the frames before it. (Up to three frames)

10. Let’s take a look at the frames and practice what
we just learned.
Frame 5 = 10 + 10 from frame six + 10 from
frame seven. We are at 91.
Frame 6 = 10 + 10 from frame seven + 9 from
frame 8. We are now at 120.
Frame 7 = 10 + 9 from frame eight. We are now
at 139. Bowling has multiple methods to keep score. What is
another sport that has multiple rules to follow?
Have you ever done a math problem with multiple steps?
How do you solve a problem with multiple steps?

11. • Johnny finally has all of the
information he needs to
keep score at bowling. He is
very excited and ready to
start bowling. Johnny
realizes he hasn’t learned
how to actually bowl yet. He
asks his teacher, “Can you
teach me how to bowl?” His
teacher responds, “I may be
good at adding, but I have no
idea how to actually bowl.”
They both laugh together.
Using your notebooks please record some steps that Johnny needs to follow
now that he knows how to keep score at bowling? What other information
does he need?

12. Review Words
Bowling
Frames
Pins
Strike
Spare
Please take a look at the review words above. What is the meaning of each
word? Please write a sentence using at least two of the words above.