My Thanksgiving Shopping List
By Caroline Wyman
The students will start off by brainstorming about their favorite Thanksgiving Day food. Talk about what ingredients are in those foods and list them. Some will be simple other more involved. Read a Thanksgiving story to the class about what the Native Americans ate on that day. Grades 3-5
Next, let the students know that they will do the grocery shopping this year and hand out grocery circulars from different stores along with $200 in play money. You can do this in small groups or individually. Let them know that they have to buy enough to feed 12 people for a Thanksgiving Day Feast. Have them make a list of the foods that they want to buy and the amounts. Have them add up their purchases and round off to the nearest dollar. They can even use coupons. Once they cash in their play money they have to see if they have any money left over.
After everyone has completed their list and finished their calculations, go ahead and graph the results. See which items appeared the most on their lists. When this is complete, make a collage from the circulars with all of the food that is pictured. It will surely make everyone hungry for Thanksgiving!
Caroline Wyman has a degree in Sociology and a Masters in Elementary Education and is the administrator for TeacherNet.com.