Big Idea: Financial Decision, Calculating costs, Rate (unit price)

Expectations:

Financial Literacy

• F.1 demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to make informed financial decision

  • F1.2 estimate and calculate the cost of transactions involving multiple items priced in whole-dollar amounts, not including sales tax, and the amount of change needed when payment is made in cash, using mental math

  • F1.5 describe some ways of determining whether something is reasonably priced and therefore a good purchase

Number

• B.1 demonstrate an understanding of numbers and make connections to the way numbers are used in everyday life

  • B1.8 round decimal numbers to the nearest whole number, in various contexts

• B.2 Use knowledge of numbers and operations to solve mathematical problems encountered in everyday life

  • B2.1 use the properties of operations, and the relationships between addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, to solve problems involving whole numbers, including those requiring more than one operation, and check calculations

  • B2.8 show simple multiplicative relationships involving whole number rates using various tools and drawings.

Social Emotional Learning Skills in Mathematics and the Mathematical Processes

• A1. Throughout this grade, in order to promote a positive identity as a math learner, to foster well-being and the ability to learn, build resilience, and thrive, students will apply, to the best of their ability, a variety of social-emotional learning skills to support their use of the mathematical processes and their learning in connection with the expectations in the other five strands of the mathematics curriculum.

In this lesson, to the best of their ability, students will learn to build relationships and communicate effectively and think critically and creatively as they apply the mathematical processes problem solving (develop, select, and apply problem-solving strategies) and reasoning and proving (develop and apply reasoning skills (e.g., classification, recognition of relationships, use of counter-examples) to justify thinking, make and investigate conjectures, and construct and defend arguments, so they can work collaboratively on math problems – expressing their thinking, listening to the thinking of others, and practising inclusivity – and in that way fostering healthy relationships and make connections between math and everyday contexts to help them make informed judgements and decisions.

teacher background

Prior Learning:

• Understanding money amounts involving decimals

• Understanding division in order to find unit price (using a calculator).

Complete the activity “Making Decisions” with students.

Making Decisions

Example of questions for discussion:

“How do we become better-informed consumers (shopper) ?”

“How do we consider the price of the purchase ?“

“How would we use different ratings, reviews, and perspectives before making a purchase ?”

“How will this help us determine the best value for money for our purchase ?”

“How can you ensure that you are making careful, responsible decisions when spending money ?”

For Virtual teaching, small groups could be set up ahead of time, they could be facilitated via breakout rooms, depending on the different district conferencing tools used. In order for the teacher to ‘move around’ the break rooms, the virtual teacher could create a shared document, slides, docs, jamboard, white board, depending on district tools, to see how the different groups are collaborating in real time.

The Making Decisions Slides can be used in person and online in the virtual classroom.

We are going to be analyzing the cost of different items to see how we can make informed purchases that suit our needs.

In pairs/groups of 3, use this template to look at some examples and determine which option is best for you.

Teacher Moves:

Teacher intentionally does not provide strategies or suggestions to students as they work in order to observe student’s strategies and to collect information for the consolidation stage when the students will learn from each other’s strategies.

Possible Guiding Question:

• “How do you decide if you would rather buy a package deal or single price item ?”

Anticipated responses:

• “I try to figure out how much one of the items will cost so that I can compare each item by itself.”

• “I compare the size of the items and estimate how much of one there is in the other.”

• “I decide how much of the item I really need.”

Possible Guiding Question:

• “Is your answer an exact amount or an estimate made using mental math strategies ? What mental math strategies could you use ?”

Anticipated responses:

• “I used friendlier numbers by rounding the dollar amounts without the cents.”

• “I would just use a calculator if I was in a store.”

Possible Guiding Question:

• “How might you verify your total amount spent ?”

Anticipated responses:

• “I wait to see what the total is when I am cashed out.”

• “I used a mental math strategy (strategies are in the anticipated response document)

• “I use a calculator.”

Teacher selects work of 3-5 students that will be shared with the class in order to highlight the following key concepts :

• Being able to describe if something is reasonably priced

• Being able to decide if something is a good purchase

• Rounding decimal to the nearest whole number

• Estimating whole numbers using mental math

• Relationship between multiplication (as repeated addition) and division (as repeated subtraction) in order to find unit price

Students will be asked to complete a math journal entry.

“Reflect on your own spending behaviors. What goals can you set for yourself to ensure you will make careful, responsible decisions when spending money ?”

For virtual teaching continue using the jamboard and select frames to share with the class to follow the key concepts listed. (strategies are in the anticipated response document).

Opportunities for Differentiation

• Rather than use the template, give each group 1 of the examples to work through. Have each group share their findings with the class.

• Instead of rounding include whole number values for the price of the different items.

For virtual teaching - Which one would you buy and why ? - Jamboard can be used in place of the template (strategies are in the anticipated response document).

Opportunities for Assessment: Observation Checklist

Students can...

• estimate and calculate the cost of purchasing multiple items.

• round decimal numbers to the nearest whole number.

• decide which item is the best purchase for them.

• explain why an item is a good purchase for them.

SEL Self-Assessments (English) and Teacher Rubric

Students explore flyers from local stores (online or hard copy) in order to compare prices and look for examples of package deals, this will put the emphasis on unit rate.

Students create their own flyers with good and bad deals, trade with a partner in order to determine what would be a good purchase for them.

Create a classroom store where students can purchase school items. Label items by package deal and observe student’s purchases to determine understanding of unit rate.