Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description

• Grade Level: Upper Elementary

• Subject Area: Math

Brief Description

    Taking into consideration the number of people they plan to serve and the amount of money they have to work with, students plan their menus in preparation for buying the necessary ingredients at the grocery store.
Objectives

    Students will:

• Plan a dinner menu for their families, taking into consideration the number of people they plan to serve.
• Budget for the dinner based on their estimates of the cost of different foods.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as a World Wide Web browser. In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: None.
2. Special software requirements: None.
3. Classroom materials: Weekly newspaper circulars, coupon sections of the newspaper, and other materials that will help students estimate the cost of their ingredients.
4. Internet access: A medium-speed or higher connection.

Activity Description

• Discuss with students whether or not they help their parents do the grocery shopping. Ask them to think about how their parents--and other people--decide how much of different kinds of foods they should buy.

• Based on the menus students developed in Lesson One, have them make a list of the ingredients they will need to have on hand as they cook their foods. Students should count the number of people they plan to feed, and then based on the instructions on the recipes, figure out whether and how they may need to modify the amounts of ingredients they need.

• Using the lists of ingredients, have students consult the weekly circulars and coupon sections of the newspaper to estimate how much it will cost for them to buy the ingredients they need for their menus.

• Have students discuss how they will shop for their ingredients. After this lesson, and in preparation for Lesson Three, students will buy the ingredients for their menus, and then, with the permission of their parents, try out the recipes they selected as a family dinner.

Back to What's for Dinner? Unit Lesson Plans