To make it fun I informed them that they would be playing a game of MACHINE vs STUDENTS. I pulled out a random receipt and told them that we were going shopping. Being a story teller, I fabricated a story around different scenarios as to why certain items on the receipt were purchased. The students had to add each item in their books. Some items were bought in threes. To make it more complicated, I mentioned for example that three bags of chips were bought. Each cost X amount of dollars. Some students multiplied to get the answer but some also added the cost three times. In the end, the students had a long list of items that had to be added to find the subtotal.
I took answers from the students and wrote them on the board. It was interesting that they all came up with different calculations. In the end, I asked a student to read what was on the original receipt. The students waited with deep anticipation, each confident that they had indeed calculated correctly. Everyone wanted to beat the cash register machine but only two students' answers matched what was on the receipt.
Knowing my students, I wasn't surprised when they begged for another round. They wanted to beat the machine so this time we went shopping at Walmart. I read the list of items again (bigger numbers) and they carefully calculated. I looked around the room and some were counting on their fingers or scribbling in their notebooks. In the end, most of them (around 90%) got the same subtotal as the receipt.
Easy, simple and fun. Our lesson on adding decimals came to an end with the students rejoicing :-)
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