Thanksgiving Dinner Math Activity

Before Thanksgiving break our second graders participated in a fun Thanksgiving math activity! Through this activity, students chose what they would buy to cook for Thanksgiving dinner. Students had multiple dinner choices such as rolls, apple pie, turkey, ham, cake, yams, pumpkin pie, etc. In the classroom we had set up a store so that students could actually shop for their dinner choices. Having only $25 to spend, students had to choose carefully in deciding which six, or more, items they would like for their Thanksgiving dinner. 

Students walked around the classroom picking up their dinner choices, then added up their bill total in order to decide if they could purchase the things they wanted or not. After adding up their bill, they also had to figure out how much money they would have left over after purchasing the food with their $25. After buying their dinner options from the cashier (me) they went back to their seats and glued their dinner decisions to their shopping bags while answering questions about their purchases on another piece of paper. 

This Thanksgiving activity was an engaging way to get students excited about their upcoming Thanksgiving meals, while allowing them to exercise their math fluency at the same time. Happy Thanksgiving!