The children were told that they had to plan the entire party all on their own with an excursion to our local Coles and with a BUDGET for food and decorations! "A budget? What is a budget?" the children questioned! Hehe!
This inquiry/math based project has given the students an opportunity to build real life problem solving skills such as brainstorming ideas, identifying problems and solutions, developing organisation, collaboration, researching and decision making skills!
Using iPads the children used the Coles website to identify what food, drinks and decorations they may need or want. The children had to classify the items they selected into groups.
The children have applied their math knowledge of surveying, collecting, presenting and interpreting data to select items to purchase. They were adding, multiplying and dividing to calculate the quantity of items needed. Once this was achieved, the children began adding and multiplying money to calculate the cost of items and then had to cross check this with their budget! This was a great experience for the children as they went WAY OVER BUDGET! "What does this mean Miss McVeigh?", "Why can't you just give us more money?" hehe! The children had to make hard decisions about what to cut from their shopping lists. The children used their imagination and creative skills to make decorations and games to save money! They made their own Christmas tree and a 'Pin the Nose on Rudolph' game!
Once all the party planning was accomplished the children were ready to go SHOPPING! We used Google Maps to identify the best and safest route to get to our destination as we decided to walk to save costs on buses. Each group had their own bag of money which they had to calculate how much change needed to be given back after their purchases. Each student brought their own recyclable/reusable bag to minimise plastic pollution as our part of our Religion unit we have been learning about being PLANET PROTECTORS!
On the day of the party the children set up the tables and decorated the classroom. They shared food, played Christmas games and danced to Christmas music!
This has been the HIGHLIGHT of the year with and a HUGE amount of learning! Such a success!
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