Place Your Order

by Jenny Helms

One of the best math activities my multilevel class enjoyed was “Place Your Order.” I gave each student a requisition form. In addition, I put a list of books and their prices on the board. I then told the students to pretend that they were the teacher and had to order books for the classroom.

The students had four hundred dollars to spend, and they had to order from each subject area. Their job was to get the most for their money without exceeding the budget. The person who could get the closest to four hundred dollars without going over it would be the winner. They also had to keep in mind that they still had to add tax and shipping to their book orders and the total could not be over four hundred dollars.

When all students completed their book orders, they went to the board one by one and went over their order with the rest of the class. If they made a mistake in the calculations, they were not required to continue their illustration for the class because the entire purchase would be incorrect. At the end of the activity, the winner was recognized.

Many skills are covered in this activity. Students get practice in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentage, and decimals. At the same time, they are thinking about the process of what to do next. Finally, they get practice in filling out forms.