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Budgeting for Thanksgiving Feast

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) ( 4.1, 192 students)
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  • Price per Classroom$3.00
  • Grade Levels 5, 6, 7, 8
  • Topics Numbers & Operations, Fractions, Ratios & Proportions, Budgeting
  • Duration 20 Minutes
  • Auto Scored? Yes
  • Teacher Evaluation Needed? No

Activity Description

Storyline: The local community has decided to come together to organize a special Thanksgiving feast for everyone to enjoy. The student volunteered to take charge of the event and turn it into a memorable community gathering. The student is given $1000 as initial funds to purchase all the ingredients needed for a delicious Thanksgiving meal.


Each meal will include the following items:

  1. Turkey
  2. Mashed Potatoes
  3. Gravy
  4. Carrot
  5. Peas
  6. Cranberry Sauce


The student's task is to find out how many meals can be prepared using the $1000 initial fund. To do so, students will first convert the measurement units of each ingredient from cups/tablespoons and ounces to pounds and gallons. Then they will use the given rate card to calculate the cost of each ingredient and finally, they will calculate the total cost of a meal.

Learning Objective

The learning objectives are:

  1. Students will develop an understanding of budgeting by managing a given amount of money to purchase ingredients for a Thanksgiving feast.
  2. Students will understand the application of Math concepts such as unit conversion, ratios, and fractions in a real-life scenario.

Teacher Tips

Included with the activity, you can view the tips to clarify student's doubts or to evaluate answers (for a teacher scored worksheet).

Common Core: MATH

Ratios & Proportions

Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with a ratio a:b with b ≠ 0, and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship. *For example, "This recipe has a ratio of 3 cups of flour to 4 cups of sugar, so there is 3/4 cup of flour for each cup of sugar." "We paid $75 for 15 hamburgers, which is a rate of $5 per hamburger."*

Ratios & Proportions

Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.

Ratios & Proportions

Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing and constant speed. *For example, if it took 7 hours to mow 4 lawns, then at that rate, how many lawns could be mowed in 35 hours? At what rate were lawns being mowed?*

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  • Price per Classroom$3.00
  • Grade Levels 5, 6, 7, 8
  • Topics Numbers & Operations, Fractions, Ratios & Proportions, Budgeting
  • Duration 20 Minutes
  • Auto Scored? Yes
  • Teacher Evaluation Needed? No

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