Movie Marathon

ND State Standard
3.GM.M.4 Solve elapsed time authentic word problems on the hour and the half-hour, using a variety of strategies.

3.GM.M.5 Solve authentic word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies using the $ and cent symbols appropriate.

Get ready for a fun-filled movie marathon, but wait! How long will it take to watch all these movies and how much will it cost?

Choose Your Movies: Pick out 5 movies you want to watch for your marathon.

Running Times and Rental Costs:

• Find out the running time (in minutes) of each movie. You can look this information up online or on the back of the DVD/Blu-ray case.

• Determine the cost to rent each movie, movies you get with your streaming service do not count as "free" find a place that allows rental and provide a rental fee.

Elapsed Time, Time Equation and a Number Line: and Money Equations:

• Use addition to find the total amount of time it will take to watch all your movies (movie 1 time + movie 2 time + ... = total time).

• Draw a number line representing the hours of your marathon day. Divide it into 30-minute intervals.

  • When jumping on an open number line - in this case a open time line - it is best to not just hop the entire alloted movie time, but rather using friendly numbers for easier "hops" as we go.  If a movie runtime is 94 minutes and we are in 3rd grade, do we move immediately from 10P to 11:34P? Probably not.  Instead, we might decompose 94 minutes into 60 minutes + 30 minutes + 4 minutes or 30 minutes + 30 minutes + 30 minutes + 4 minutes.  If we use the first decomposition listed above, we would jump from 10P to 11P (we know thats 60 minutes), then I can go from 11P - 11:30P (we know that's 30 minutes), now I need 4 more minutes so hop 11:30P to 11:34P.

  • Math Is Figur-Out Able podcast epsiode "Elapsed Time on a Number Line" - it is 19 minutes, but completely worth the listen if using an open number line is new for you.

  • An example of elapsed time on an open number line.

Money Equation and Money Chart:

• Add up the cost of renting each movie to find the total cost of your movie marathon.  Think about how 3rd graders would need to be shown how to add money together.  Think about if we have 10 pennies we can exchange for 1 dime or 4 quarters to exchange for $1. Don't make assumptions. 

• Use virtual money to keep track of the rental cost for each movie and the total cost, by adding together the values using a virtual money manipulative such as the following. This does not mean to just show the total value after you add, but actually showing how to add your money together by showing that when you reach 10 pennies, you now have a dime. This may be easiest to use screen recording to show how to add together.

Schedule It In!

• Create a detailed schedule for your movie marathon. Include the title of each movie, start time, end time (based on the movie's running time), and rental cost.

• Factor in meal breaks! Estimate how much time you'll spend eating meals/snacks during your marathon and add that to your total time and number line.

• If you are eating, what are you eating and how much will it cost for snacks and meals? Use virtual money to keep track of the meal and snack costs.