Description
What our Real-World Math Applications lesson plan includes
Lesson Objective and Overview: Real-World Math Applications exposes students to math problems that involve real-world applications. Students will also learn why math is essential in so many aspects of their lives, from the grocery store to a home improvement project or even ordering food in a restaurant. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to apply basic math skills to real-world problems. Students will also understand that math is used by nearly everyone every day in some form or fashion. This lesson is for students in 3rd grade and 4th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One adjustment to the lesson activity is to display index cards with different labels stating the price and number of ounces for each cereal or have them look up other cereals online to find the ounces and prices for six kinds of cereal they like to eat. If you have a local newspaper, you could bring in the grocery ads for the week and have the students research the price through the ads. For the practice worksheet, you could have your students create a larger tiled piece using cutout shapes and use that to calculate the price. You could also use the practice worksheet as a springboard for talking about patterns.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
REAL-WORLD MATH APPLICATIONS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Trey and the Stink Eye
The Real-World Math Applications lesson plan includes two content pages, which tell the story of Trey and the Stink Eye. This story forms the basis for the rest of the lesson, including the lesson worksheets.
In the story, a student named Trey usually goes to the mall food court with his mom and aunt on Fridays as a reward for keeping his grades up. However, his math grade has started to fall! His aunt, who is a teacher, asks him about his recent math test, and Trey admits that he did not do well.
Trey’s aunt has a superpower—the teachers’ stink eye! Once she sees his math test, she turns her stink eye on him. He tries to defend himself by saying that math is dumb and that they don’t use any of the skills they learn in math class in real life. His aunt suggest that they take a trip to the grocery story to see math in action!
REAL-WORLD MATH APPLICATIONS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Real-World Math Applications lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
GROCERY STORE ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
The lesson activity builds on the story in the lesson content pages. For the activity, students will pretend that they are the boy from the story. They will fill in the chart on the worksheet with different cereal names, prices, the number of ounces in each box, and the cost per ounce. They will then answer some questions about their data, making sure to show their work.
HOME IMPROVEMENT PRACTICE WORKSHEET
Like the lesson activity, the practice worksheet builds on the story in the lesson content pages. For the practice worksheet, students will pretend that they are the boy from the story. After leaving the grocery store, their next stop is a home improvement store. Trey’s aunt is remodeling her floor and wants to buy a tile to replace her floors with, but different shaped tile costs different amounts of money. Students will calculate the price to cover each room with the tiles his aunt has chosen, based on the sample diagrams and prices listed on the worksheet, making sure to show their work.
FOOD COURT HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Like the lesson activity and practice worksheet, the homework assignment builds on the story in the lesson content pages. For the homework assignment, students will first make a list of all the times they use math during the day. Next, they will solve two real-world word problems. Finally, they will write down what they learned about math from the story in the lesson!
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
