Grocery Game: Estimating, Adding, and Multiplying Decimals

This powerpoint presentation is based on the popular game show "The Price Is Right."

It is a fun, whole class activity that you need to be able to project in your classroom on an interactive whiteboard or screen-share for distance learning.

As students play along, they practice estimating to stay within a shopping budget. They have to multiply and add with decimal numbers: all helpful realistic applications.

My students absolutely love playing this game, and I have included three rounds so you can play more than once!

Instructions:

1) Decide on a target range. A higher range will require more challenging multiplication. If the range is tighter, it will be more difficult to win. I usually use a range such as $50-$52.

2) Tell students they must buy at least 4 of the 5 products. Students need to have a piece of paper and a pencil for calculations.

3) Choose a student to pick the first product. She needs to estimate the price for one of them, decide how many she wants to buy, and estimate how much that will cost. “I think the cheese is about $5, I want 3, so that will be around $15.”

4) Then show the price (by moving the red box with your cursor), and all students calculate the cost by hand. For example, 3 x 5.75 = 17.25. This is the start of the running total.

5) Choose another student to buy the second product. Again, have him or her estimate before calculating. Then allow all the students to calculate the cost of the second product. For example 4 x 3.19 = 12.76.

6) Now students have to switch from multiplying to adding decimals. They add the price of the second product to their running total. 17.25 + 12.76 = 30.01

7) Continue with the third, fourth, and fifth (if necessary) product.

8) Students try to spend between $50-52. It’s not always easy! Talk to the class about different strategies such as saving an inexpensive product for the end.

If you like this Grocery Game, try another one!

Fall Edition

Winter Edition

A total of 5 pages in PowerPoint

Title Page

Instructions

3 Rounds of the Game