Supermarket Math Adventure!
Let's go on a shopping trip... with math!
Materials You'll Need:
- Grocery store flyers or advertisements
- Play money (coins and bills) OR paper/pencil
- Empty, clean food boxes/containers or play food items (optional)
- Paper
- Pencil
Let's Shop!
Imagine you have a shopping list and need to buy a few things at the supermarket. We need to figure out how much it will all cost!
Activity 1: Price Check
Look through the grocery flyers. Find the price of these items (or similar items):
- A box of cereal
- A carton of milk
- A bunch of bananas
- A loaf of bread
- A jar of peanut butter
Write down the price next to each item on your paper. Prices are usually written like $2.99 (two dollars and ninety-nine cents).
Activity 2: Adding Up Your Items
Let's pretend you choose three items to buy. Let's say you chose:
- Cereal: $3.50
- Milk: $2.25
- Bananas: $1.10
How much will these cost altogether? We need to add the prices!
Write the numbers down, lining them up carefully. It's easiest to add the cents first, then the dollars.
$3.50 + $2.25 + $1.10 ------
First, add the cents column (0 + 5 + 0 = 5). Then add the next cents column (5 + 2 + 1 = 8). So we have 85 cents.
Next, add the dollars column (3 + 2 + 1 = 6). So we have 6 dollars.
The total cost is $6.85!
Activity 3: Your Shopping Trip
Now it's your turn!
- Choose 3 or 4 items from the grocery flyer (or use your play food/boxes and make up prices like $1.50, $2.00, $0.75, $3.10).
- Write down the items and their prices.
- Carefully add the prices together on your paper. Remember to line them up!
- What is your total cost?
- (Optional Challenge): If you paid with a $10.00 bill or a $20.00 bill (using play money), could you figure out the change? (We can work on subtraction next time!)
Wrap Up
Great job being a super shopper! Adding prices helps us know if we have enough money when we go to the store. Keep practicing looking at prices and adding them up!