How to Use Party Planning as a Math Activity
Planning a class party is a wonderful opportunity to show students just how useful math skills can be. The “party” can even be a hypothetical one; kids will still have fun planning a party that will never actually happen. In the lesson given below, the skills are limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. However, the lesson will stand up for kids with more advanced skills, too: Simply alter the problems to include the skills you want to see them practice.
Instructions
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1
Hand out “invitations” to the party. Include on the invitations all of the information you would like students to use during the activity. If the party is going to be an actual one, go ahead and put the date and time for the party on the invitation.
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2
Give your students a budget limit for the party, and how much each attendee will contribute. For example, you might say that you are willing to contribute $35, and that they will each contribute $3. The first math problem, then, is to figure out the total budget for the party.
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3
Tell students that you found $8 pizzas that can be cut into 12 pieces. Ask kids to come to a consensus about how many pizzas they need, based on how many pieces of pizza they think the class will eat.
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4
Make the next problem subtracting the amount paid for the pizzas from the total budget. Further reduce that amount by asking students to figure out how much it would cost to provide one soda to each student versus the possibility of several glasses of lemonade. Ask the students to vote on which choice they prefer.
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5
Assign students to decide how many treats they could afford with the money left in the budget, adjusting the choices, of course, depending on the number of students. Consider treats such as a can of Silly String for each student, two movie rentals, two candy bars per student, and several bags of microwave popcorn.
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Complete the lesson by asking the students to turn in an individual budget as if they were personally in charge of making the final decision.
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Tips & Warnings
Entertain kids at the actual or “virtual” math party with various math brainteasers (see Resources below).
Throw a little wrench into the works by reminding them to budget for you, too.
Make sure that the refreshments and treats you offer can actually be purchased for the prices you suggest to the class.
