Math For Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again when you only have a couple of days to teach this week because it is the week of Thanksgiving.  I love having the students do Thanksgiving themed math activities this week because they are in no mood to do regular work.  Unfortunately, most of the things labeled Thanksgiving math are the standard worksheets that substitute turkeys for chocolate or add cute Thanksgiving pictures to the worksheet.  This is where Yummy math comes to the rescue.

The link will take you to enough activities to last the whole week and give you lots of choice.  The activities span grades from upper elementary through all of middle school but some are quite easy to adjust to use in high school. There is one for planning the turkey for Thanksgiving Dinner and deciding which method - bake, fry, or smoke - is the best based on cost.  The worksheet takes students step by step through it including having them read the chart that suggests how long it takes to cook different sized turkeys. 

Another activity helps students learn to adjust the recipe for mashed potatoes for 4, 8, 10, and 12 people at first and then up to 32 servings.  It also asks students to explain how they found their answers. There is also an activity that has students calculating the amount of ingredients needed for like 23 people.  A very real life activity unless you have family members bring dishes.  Yummy math didn't forget the cranberry sauce in that they have another activity for this. 

There are three activities dealing with football since for many people, those games are extremely important. One has students reading various graphs to make predictions on the next move if it is the fourth down.  Another one has students use the pythagorean theorem to determine how far someone ran and the final has students interpreting data on an infographic in regard to NFL home advantage versus away games. 

For those not into football, there are two activities that have students analyze Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  One activity has students analyzing the route from 5 years ago to determine if it is the best one and how long it will take folks to cover the route.  The other looks at two new balloons and looking at their dimensions in comparison to humans, bicycles, etc to give a better idea of size.  

The activities are not only focused on Thanksgiving itself but there are two dealing with Black Friday deals. One worksheet asks students things like how much do they save if they buy the item on sale, translating it into percent off, and completing a chart, similar to data charts in science. The other is the same type of activity but it uses different items including large screen tv sets and games.  The final financial activity has students interpreting data off of graphs in regard to consumer spending over a 5 year period.

There are enough activities that you can have different groups work on different activities so everyone's interest is met.  You could even cluster the turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie ones as planning a meal, the football and Macy's ones as entertainment over the weekend and the financial ones for the traditional Black Friday sales.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.  On Wednesday, there is information on creating interactive worksheets that help the student.