Menu Practice (adding, etc)

Students get a copy of a menu from a restaurant that they've heard of. They also need whiteboards and some of them get calculators. We go over the menu. I ask where it's from and some general questions, just getting them to look over some of the items and prices of items (How much would Jim pay for a cheeseburger deluxe?, Which one is more, a glass of milk or a glass of pop?, How much is dessert? where would you find the salads?)

Then we get into adding some prices up. I say things like "if I were to order a salad and a glass of chocolate milk, how much would I spend?" We talk about what to do to solve this problem and I remind them of the key words discussed earlier on our poster for adding. Then the kids that can add, write the problem out on their whiteboards and solve it (usually at the beginning I have everyone try to add on the whiteboard versus jumping to the calculator). Then I use them for examples, such as if Bob and Mark go out for dinner, they maybe both want cheeseburgers. How much would two cheeseburgers be? We do a few like this. Then I ask them to make a list on paper of the things they'd order if they had $X. They write a list and we share with eachother. Then I give them a bit more ficticious money. Then we talk about totals. If we order 3 cheeseburgers, 1 chicken sandwich, 4 glasses of pop and 4 ice cream sundaes, what would the total be?

After going over a lot of examples together, I hand out a new menu. We go over it together (reading skills are a struggle for most of these kids so I want them to be familiar with the menu before I let them work on their own). Then I tell them that they are going to take their family out for dinner. I have them write down what they think their family members would order and what the total for each member, and the total of the whole meal (we don't worry about tax and tip at this point). I allow them to work together because they have to do their own families and the higher readers help some of the ones that struggle. We work on this in class. Then when their done, I look at what they have and make sure it's correct. Then they transfer this information onto a poster board and use markers to liven it all up. At the end (the next day), they present this to the class and hang them up (usually about the time we have parent/teacher conferences). It creates a great conversation with parents also!