3rd Grade Is In Charge of Your Dinner

In my room full of third graders we have been studying economics over the last week. My students really enjoy anything when it comes to planning a budget (reflecting back to my Santa Project which you can read here.) It was interesting to hear student discussion about what they should save or spend money on.

To begin, each group was given guidelines. For my students, I said they had $50 and had to feed 20 people. This was more of a challenge than they expected. Given a budget planning sheet and a list of grocery store items they set to work. Each item included a price and the number of people it fed. Each  group had to include a vegetable, fruit, grain, meat, and drink option for all 20 guests. 

This activity required some out-of -the box thinking. If students bought hot dogs, they had to leave enough money for hot dog buns. If they bought pasta, they needed to have sauce. I was also interested to listen to student conversation of "we bought bread instead of rolls because it will feed more and it costs less than rolls" or "even though the ham will feed more we think it is way to expensive." 

Students are engaged and interested when working to solve real-life problems. They work together to plan around a budget, come up with options, and I learned that with this group's menu planning I will always be enjoying lots of lemonade and hot dogs!

This activity is FREE on my TPT! You can get it here!