Thanksgiving Math

I enjoy creating my own worksheets for thanksgiving math because I try to base the problems on planning a meal for a group of people.  Before they begin, they have to create a menu.  Once they have the menu set, they need to look up things like how many people will the average sized can of cranberry sauce feed?  How many ounces is the average size serving of turkey?

From this information, they create a shopping list so they get enough food for everything they have planned.  The look up the cost of the items so they know total spend for the meal.  This allows them to calculate the cost per person they are spending for the meal.  The final cost and cost per person can be rather shocking for many of the students.

They also have to think about the time needed to cook the turkey, the pies, the bread, etc, so the meal is ready on time.  The turkey is usually set at 20 min per pound or if you check a chart, a 20 lb turkey should take about 4.5 hours.  The pies are 35 to 60 min depending on the type.  If you buy the heat and bake rolls, those could take 15 to 20 min and the various casseroles are more time. 

In addition, students need to figure out how much they can actually cook in the oven at once.  If they decide to fry the turkey, they have to figure out how much oil the cooker needs.  So many variables to look at for a simple meal.

It takes a few days and is a perfect project for the short week going into thanksgiving.  I"m at a point in my life, where I usually spend it with friends and I am responsible for providing the pumpkin pie made from scratch. 

I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving and I will provide the uses for comic maker I spoke about for today on Friday.  I do not plan to post a blog entry tomorrow.