Thanksgiving Cooking Challenge: Food Shopping and Budgeting

OVERVIEW

This content allows students to practice currency conversion and money addition in a simulated shopping activity, using the preparation of a Thanksgiving dinner as the backdrop. Students then utilize the purchased ingredients to design their own creative dishes, applying their math knowledge in real-life situations while also cultivating their creativity.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

• Practice calculating total monetary amounts and exchanging different denominations.
• Practice money addition skills.
• Learn the crucial step of checking available funds before a purchase.
• Apply budget management and money addition skills in a real-world scenario.

ACTIVITIES AND INSTRUCTION

• How much money is in the piggy bank?: Students will practice adding up various coins and bills to find the total amount in the piggy bank, concurrently practicing basic addition skills and identifying different denominations.
• Different Ways to Pay: Students convert given amounts into different combinations of coins or bills. Emphasize that the total value remains the same despite the change in physical form.
• Check Your Budget: Have students add up a provided set of mixed coins and bills to calculate their total starting funds. Emphasize the importance of knowing and checking their budget before starting the shopping activity.
• Thanksgiving Shopping Spree: Provide various shopping scenarios for students to calculate the total cost of ingredients based on the unit price and quantity needed.
• Creative Thanksgiving Dish: Assign students a budget. Challenge them to select and purchase ingredients from the price list to design a creative Thanksgiving dish. They must keep a running total of costs to ensure they stay within their assigned budget and determine the correct change they would receive.
• Thanksgiving Dish Sharing: Have students present their unique Thanksgiving dish, discussing the ingredients they chose, the total cost, and the creativity behind their dish.

Teaching Materials: Cut out the coins and bills to practice with the content activities.