Black Friday and Football

Today is quite well known due to the extreme sales offered by some stores while others are excited due to the extra number of football games being offered.  The question becomes, how do you integrate mathematical activities with this theme to get the attention of all students.

Yummy Math has some lovely activities for the whole thanksgiving weekend.

1.  Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  This activity has students look at the route of this famous parade to determine how far people must march, beginning and ending times, volume of a couple balloons, and a few other things.  Although this is geared for upper elementary, it could easily be adjusted for upper grades.

2. Black Friday Sales. This activity makes students look at various "sale items" to determine the discount and the actual amount saved on popular items like televisions and game boxes.

3. Consumer spending - this activity has students examine graphs on our spending to see if they can spot historical patterns to get a better idea of what might keep spiking.  Almost the same thing that retailers use to determine their best sales.

4. Home Team Advantage for the NFL - helps students learn to read and interpret infographics.  This infographic shows the wins and losses for games played at home and away.  Students are asked to prove whether the team will win more at home or away by analyzing the data.  Perfect for the sports enthusiast.

Yummy Math offers 6 more activities dealing with topics associated with this weekend.  Topics from cooking Turkey and mashed potatoes to football to food banks and shelters.  All very appropriate and very relevant. 

Check it out and have fun.  Monday, I'll be talking about ways to take notes.  Have a good weekend.