Munchkin Math

Today the students took part in a special math lesson, called Munchkin Math.  The purpose of this math lesson reinforced the students 'money skills' while using critical thinking and problem solving strategies.  We recently finished our money unit in Math in Focus, and this lesson allowed the students to use their newly acquired money skills in a hands-on environment.

Two 'stores' were set up in the classroom-'The Pizza Shop', and the 'Ice Cream Sundae Shop'.  The students were given two worksheets, outlining the various items which could be purchased at each store. However, the students had a budget of $4.00 to spend at both stores.  At the beginning of our lesson, the students spent time problem solving the items they wanted to purchase, and adding up the total to make sure they were within their budget.  This computational portion of the lesson involved addition, subtraction, and multiplication.  For example, at the 'Pizza Shop' one piece of Pepperoni cost ten cents, so if the student wanted to purchase five pieces of pepperoni, then the total amount for this purchase was fifty cents.  

Using construction paper replica's, the students purchased and created their own pizza's and sundaes.  I would like to send out a big thank you to our parent volunteers who helped us today!  Many thanks are sent to Mrs.  Riley, Mrs.  Ginley, and Mrs.  Cassidy (Trevor's Gramma).  

When we were finished with the lesson, I asked the children their thoughts....and they all said how much fun they had, and how they understand money more.  Here are a few pictures from our event:  

The students are planning their budgets!

Mrs.  Cassidy helps Song with her purchases at the Ice Cream Sundae Shop

Mrs.  Ginley helped students with their purchases at the Pizza Shop!  Tristan, Sadie, and Haydon are looking over their options!

Keira was so proud after using her innovation....she used her purchases from the 'Pizza Shop' to create a person on her pizza!

Mrs.  Riley reviewed Laney's budget sheet as Laney purchased items to create her ice cream sundae!

Liam likes sausage on his pizza!  He displayed great problem solving and critical thinking on his budget sheet!

Miles has a special ice cream sundae in the works!

Check out my icecream sundae!  Thank you Mrs.  Riley for helping me with my purchases at the 'Sundae Shop'.

Alexander and Mason are digging deep into their money to pay for their purchases!

Granuaile, Sara, and Song are busy creating their pizza's with Mrs.  Ginley!

Trevor loved sharing his creations with his Gramma!

It's all in the math!  Look what we created today while refining our money skills!

And now for a silly picture...because we worked really hard, learned a lot,  while having fun!

Tomorrow, after we take our Fraction Post Assessment...we will create Fraction Art!  Math is so much fun!