Title – Shopping Spree

By – Leila Vrhel

Primary Subject – Math

Grade Level – Grade 4

Goal: Students know how to round and multiply multi-digit numbers by single digit numbers to solve real-life problems.

Objective: Students will try to spend as close to $1,000 as they can as they estimate the cost of a shopping spree.

Materials: Newspaper ads (department stores, grocery stores, specialty stores, electronics, etc.)

Recording sheet with columns labeled like this:

Rules are

1. You must “buy” two or more of each item.

2. You can buy up to 20 kinds of items (not 20 total items)

3. You must try to get as close to $1,000.00 as you can.

Procedure:

1. Tell students they will be going on a shopping spree to spend $1,000.00. They can work individually, in partners, or groups.

2. Project an overhead transparency of the recording sheet.

3. Model what to do. Choose an ad and say, “I think I’ll buy some rings.” Write “ring” under item. Talk about the cost, say $79.99, but instead of writing the exact price, they will round (to $80) and write that under “rounded price.”

4. Next, they need to decide how many to buy (two) and write that amount under “quantity.” Remember, it has to be at least two for them to practice multiplying rounded numbers.

5. In the last column (rounded total) they should estimate the total cost by multiplying the rounded price ($80) by the quantity (2). So $160 ($80×2) goes in the last column.

6. Remind students they have a $1,000 limit and they should keep track as they work. Keeping a running total of the last column will help.

7. You can extend students’ problem-solving by asking “How much more do you need to get $1,000?” as they work.

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Leila Vrhel

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