Beacon Lesson Plan Library

Christmas Shopping

Deborah Brannon

Description

Students will pretend to buy age/gender appropriate Christmas presents using a given budget for a specified number of people.

Standards

Florida Sunshine State Standards
SS.D.1.2.5
The student understands the concept of earning income and the basic concept of a budget.

Florida Process Standards
Information Managers
01 Florida students locate, comprehend, interpret, evaluate, maintain, and apply information, concepts, and ideas found in literature, the arts, symbols, recordings, video and other graphic displays, and computer files in order to perform tasks and/or for enjoyment.

Effective Communicators
02 Florida students communicate in English and other languages using information, concepts, prose, symbols, reports, audio and video recordings, speeches, graphic displays, and computer-based programs.

Numeric Problem Solvers
03 Florida students use numeric operations and concepts to describe, analyze, communicate, synthesize numeric data, and to identify and solve problems.

Critical and Creative Thinkers
04 Florida students use creative thinking skills to generate new ideas, make the best decision, recognize and solve problems through reasoning, interpret symbolic data, and develop efficient techniques for lifelong learning.

Responsible and Ethical Workers
05 Florida students display responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, selfmanagement, integrity, and honesty.

Materials

-Sale papers found in the newspaper
-Catalogs
-List of people with ages
-Calculators

Preparations

1. Gather sale papers and catalogs.
2. Set up a list of people to buy for at Christmas and duplicate as worksheet.
3. Set up a budget.
4. Gather enough calculators for the class to share.

Procedures

1. Explain to the class that they are going to do what parents hate to do.... try to buy Christmas presents for everyone on their list and stay within their budget.

2. Pass out a worksheet that lists the names of the people to buy for and their ages if needed. On this worksheet, have a place for students to write the gift, the store where it was located, and the price of the item.
Example:
Mom
Dad
Brother Mike (age 32)
Sister Lucy (age 12)
Grandma (age 68)
Cousin Justin (age 2)

3. Make available several sales papers and catalogs for the students to look through.

4. Set a budget of about $500.

5. Have the students begin looking through the sale papers and list the gift, the store where they found it, and the cost.

6. After completing their gift lists, the students are to get a calculator and add up their total purchases to see if they have stayed within the set budget. If they have gone over their budget, they need to rethink and buy something else to make their budgets work.

7. Compare each student's spending to see who saved the most and who spent the most and discuss together how and/or why these were different.

Assessments

The teacher assesses through observation by determining that the gifts are age/gender appropriate and are within the assigned budget.
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