Want Real Numbers? Try a Receipt!

Hi All,

Have you done any shopping lately? Say for Thanksgiving? or Black Friday? Probably you have a receipt or two lying around. It always a good idea to help kids build awareness of math around them in their daily lives. Share receipts if you want some real numbers for some real math.

One way to do this is by making a copy of the same receipt for each student, share this with the class, and ask students to take a few minutes to read through it and highlight or underline anything of interest.

Have students share back what they have noticed both in terms of numbers and words. This really is a text to be read. Project the receipt on a screen or on the board and note what students point out. Boy, there's a lot of numbers and it tells us a lot about the different ways numbers are used. For example, here's one item from a receipt:

8.5 OZ TRISCUIT 0078752334322 2.08

So, just on one item, we have numbers used for weight (8.5 ounce box), numbers used for identification (the long number is the item #), and the price ($2.08).

On the receipt we will also find a store #, store phone number, address with # of street and zip code, tax with %, receipt #, terminal #, date, time, total items sold, total cost, and some other codes. Kids find all this fascinating.

For homework, students can dig up their own receipt from home and do the same analysis. Also if you want to focus on column addition and efficient ways to add money, there's nothing better than the real examples receipts provide. You can even get into calculator skills and have students check to make sure the receipt is accurate. It's a simple activity that makes a point and can be taken in a lot of different math directions.

Happy Teaching!

Bob

Comments

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