Grocery Shopping on a Budget: Financial Literacy, Life Skills, Healthy

Healthy eating and budgeting are key life skills that need to be taught to our middle school students in grades 5-8. Here's a fun, interactive lesson that can do just that!

Students are tasked with creating a personalized meal plan using a $30 budget for the day. They are given 20 food options for each of three meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) with the prices provided (based on a Canadian discount food store). They plan which items they will buy for each meal while following some healthy and budget-friendly rules:

• each meal must include a vegetable or fruit

• each meal must make some leftovers to be eaten another day

• all three meals must not exceed the $30 budget

Students can approach this task in different ways. They might decide to use $10 for each meal, or plan two cheaper meals to be able to have one that is more expensive. They might have to change their plan as they go, put back a sweet treat they don't really need, or switch to a cheaper option to stay in budget. These are all helpful, real-life math and life skills!

What's Included:

• Teacher Handout with instructions on how to use the lesson.

• Student Handout to brainstorm ideas for healthy shopping and staying on budget.

• 3 Pages of Worksheets: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner: Each with 20 food options, a shopping list, place to add up the total cost of the meal, and some reflection questions.

• Final Budget Page: Students add up the cost of all three meals and write a paragraph to reflect on the shopping for healthy choices on a budget process.

Grades to Use With:

This lesson is perfect for students in grades 5-8 who are learning decimal operations and starting to learn about life skills. It could also be used in a high school special education classroom if the students are able to complete decimal operations (calculators can be used).