Problem-Solving:

A $10,000 Shopping Spree

 

Today's Snack: What do millionaires often have in their hands? A big, fat cigar. Well, those aren't healthy for you . . . but you can make a healthy cigar "wrap" to eat, and pretend you have Big Bucks. Take a large leaf of romaine lettuce and wash under cool running water so that there's no dirt left anywhere. Lay it out on a cutting board. Blob a few spoonfuls of chicken salad or tuna salad along the middle. Roll the leaf up, sideways. Twist the two ends so that it kind of, sort of, looks like a cigar. Hold it with the attitude of a millionaire . . . and then eat it! Wash it down with a glass of milk - which doesn't cost a million, but tastes like it.

 

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Supplies:

Today's newspaper - more than 1 copy is helpful for groups

Colored pencils | regular pencils | lots of scratch paper

 

 

            Let's shop 'til we drop, and spend money like a millionaire. Only, of course, it won't be REAL money . . . just on paper. But it'll be fun to spend, anyway.

 

            Take a newspaper with lots of advertisements, including in the classifieds section. Now let the shopping engines begin!

 

            Find something in the newspaper that you would like to buy. On the scratch paper, draw a picture of the item with colored pencil, label it, and include the price.

 

Then, on a master list, keep listing the things that you are "buying," making a column of prices. Keep adding up the subtotals for everything you decide to buy, until it's at or below $10,000.

 

            Tape all the things you could buy for $10,000 up on the board or wall for all to see.

 

            If you're really serious, you can add 7% sales tax on to every item before you subtotal it, and at the end of the activity, add up how much you spent on taxes compared to how much you spent on the items themselves.