LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

GENERAL INFORMATION
Lesson Title & Subject(s):
Making Change: A Lesson in Grocery Shopping
Topic or Unit of Study:
Mathematics
Grade/Level:
5th Grade
Instructional Setting:
This will be an interactive lesson in a classroom setting. Students will be
seated in pairs of desks facing forward in order to compare answers after each question. On the
SmartBoard there will be different grocery store items that 5th grade students would use in their daily
life with the cost to get their minds rolling about prices and making change. The lesson will take place
during a 75 minute block schedule.
STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES
Your State Core Curriculum/Student Achievement Standard(s):
State of South Dakota, Math, Goal: Measurement, Grade Level: 3-5, Indicator:
Use various units of measure within a system of measurement, Specific Grade:
5, Standard:
solve problems involving money, e.g., use of proper notation, unit
conversions, and making change.
Lesson Objective(s):
Given 10 real life examples of grocery store transactions, students will be able to
correctly make change 8 times using the physical manipulative of play money.
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
Instructional Materials:
Physical manipulative of play money (cash and coins), SmartBoard for the
introduction of the lesson and what we will be doing, worksheet with
the 10 real life grocery store transactions.
Resources:
Hands on manipulatives of play money.
INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN
Sequence of Instructional Procedures/Activities/Events (provide description and
indicate approximate time for each):
1. Student Prerequisite Skills/Connections to Previous Learning:
Students will activate prior knowledge by discussing times when they might have to make
change and add the costs of different items. Using the SmartBoard we will look at different
price tags, receipts, and images of transactions in the real world. They will have previously
worked on adding and subtracting decimals. In this lesson they will be given different

problems where they will have to add up the cost of items, decide which bill or bills they
should use to pay for said items, and then subtract the cost of their purchases from the bills
they selected. (10 minutes)
2. Presentation Procedures for New Information or Modeling:
Throughout the room there will be several boxes and containers of real food items students

might see inside their local grocery store. Each of these containers will have a price tag
placed on it by myself. Students will work with a partner where one is the customer and one
is the grocer. Students will take turns compiling their purchase. The customer will be
responsible for selecting items, using their estimation skills to make sure they gave the grocer
sufficient money, and double checking the grocers math to ensure they were given the
correct change. The grocer will be responsible for adding up the total cost of the items on
their worksheet, and subtracting the total cost from the money given to them by the
customer. Each of the 10 transactions will be recorded on a worksheet provided by myself (5
as the customer, 5 as the grocer). At the end of the lesson each worksheet will be turned in to
check that they obtained correct answers on at least 8/10 transactions. This information will
all be explained during the PowerPoint presentation. (10 minutes)
3. Guided Practice:
After the direct instruction I will ask the students to explain back to me the sequencing of
events to check for understanding. To model how I would like the lesson to go I will select a
student and he/she and myself will model a transaction for the class. (5 minutes)
4. Independent Student Practice:
Students will then be assigned a partner with whom to complete the lesson. They will be
given up until the last 5 minutes in the class period to get done with their ten transactions (5
as the customer, 5 as the grocer). (35 minutes)
5. Culminating or Closing Procedure/Activity/Event:
After each of the pairs have turned in their worksheets we will talk about the lesson. We will
discuss as a group what went well, what they learned, and what we could improve upon for
next time. The next lesson students will have the opportunity to look at how they did on their
worksheets. Students who do not score an 8/10 or higher will be required to correct any
errors that they had made during the course of the ten transactions the following day. (15
minutes)
Instructional Strategy (or Strategies):
Direct instruction is used at the beginning of the lesson when I am explaining the
sequence of events. Collaboration is used during the partner work portion of the
lesson. Experiential learning is seen during the simulation portion of the lesson.
Differentiated Instruction Accommodations:
Gifted or accelerated learners will have additional challenge problems on the back of their
worksheets. The desks will be moved so that there is plenty of space for movement, especially for
students with physical disabilities. Students with impaired hearing will be seated at the front of
the room for the direct instruction and modeling portions of the lesson. English Language
Learners will have a shortened assignment (6 problems - 3 as the customer, 3 as the grocer) and
will be required to work on correctly spelling and identifying the different food items. Students
with learning disabilities will be paired up with gifted learners to assist in the learning process.

Use of Technology:
The technology in this lesson will be limited to the use of the SmartBoard during the direct
instruction portion of the lesson.
Student Assessment/Rubrics:
The worksheet where students are required to show their work from the ten transactions will serve
as their informal formative assessment. I will check for understanding during the independent
student practice. Students who did not score 80% or higher will be required to go back and fix the
errors on their transactions worksheet.

Justification of Instructional Approach

While there are many research-based instructional approaches that could be used in a 5th grade
mathematics lesson plan, I chose to focus the majority of the lesson on collaborative learning.
Collaborative learning is based on four main principles. These principles include: keeping the learner
at the center of the lesson, having the primary focus of the lesson be the doing, working in groups as
an important factor of learning, developing solutions to real world problems (Collaborative Learning:
Group Work). These four principles can be seen in the lesson Making Change: A Lesson in Grocery
Shopping. The student is at the center of the lesson as direct instruction accounts for a very small
portion of the entire lesson. They are working in teams of two throughout the independent student
practice portion and calculating grocery costs and change are definitely applicable skills in the real
world. Collaborative learning is a lifelong skill that will be beneficial for students to begin early on in
life. With the teacher selecting the different partnerships no students will be left without a partner.
The hands on play money will enhance student learning outcomes by making it a very realistic
simulation. Students will feel like they are independent learners making their own decisions about
what to buy and how to spend their money. The students will have to be responsible about how they
spend their money and making sure that they were given the correct amount of change. Both of these
skills are important as they grow into mature adults. Students will also be able to practice this skill

outside of the classroom as they witness their parents using cash for purchases and different store
owners making change.
A virtual manipulative that would be beneficial for 5th grade mathematics would be virtual
base-10 blocks. These blocks would allow students to compare the different relationships between
thousands, hundreds, tens, ones, and tenths without having to purchase all of these for each member in
the class. Students could look at the prices of different items and assemble the virtual base-10 blocks.
This would help them picture the difference between the different decimal places.

Works Cited
"Collaborative Learning: Group Work."
Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence
.
Cornell University, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.