From T.V. to Math Class

The one thing that every kid has in common is that they watch t.v. (although some more than others). So when I was assigned to teach a Locally Developed Math Class, I tried every way possible to make connections to what the kids are surrounded by every day. For the Money unit, we were learning how to estimate prices... so what better way to engage the students, than to have a Price is Right game show right in the classroom!

Here it is below for anyone interested... you can use items from the school, home, or to make it more interesting, take a little trip to your closest dollar store. The kids were all involved (even the ones who refused to usually participate because of low confidence in the subject), there were lots of laughs, and lots of application of knowledge learned. 

Estimating Prices

The Price is Right Game

The contestants from the Contestant Row who guesses the cost of the item, closest to the actual price without going over, wins it and has the chance to play in the Final Showdown.

Buy/Collect 6 items:

-have the students write the price they think it is on their cards

-show the cards, the closest without going over qualifies for the final

-before entering the final, they need to go to the board to answer a math/ real life situation question for an additional prize (pencil or pen, or candy…). Have the audience answer the questions too, and they will be the judges to tell them if their answer is right or not.

*If you are calculating a price on the calculator, and the final answer is 16.5, how do you read this?

*You are working as a cashier. A customer purchases a candy for 65 cents, and gives you a dollar for it. How much change would you give them? Describe 3 different ways that you can give them this change.

*The cost of a water bottle is $1.65. Round this price to the nearest half dollar. Round the price to the nearest full dollar.

*You have a grocery list with 10 items on it. List 2 reasons why it would be helpful to estimate the cost of each item before going to the store.

-after doing this for 6 items, there will be 6 students in the semi-finals; have them one at a time draw 2 notes from a hat. In this hat there will be multiple notes with different amounts of cents on it. The 2 students that have the closest to a dollar without going over (have students all add these up in their notebook), goes onto the Final Show-down

-the final show-down will include dividing the class into 2 groups… and the last 2 left will go head to head trying to estimate the cost of multiple items (without going over), while the others will be their teammates to help them out.