Food Truck Challenge: Adding and Subtracting with Decimals

On the first day of camp, students will be creating a project to use on the final day of camp. We will create our very own food truck! Students will design and construct a paper food truck including an interior with a counter, oven, refrigerator and trash can! They may add any other details they want to their food truck, but everything must be made out of paper. Students will attach the food truck to a small piece of poster board, card board, or construction paper and decorate the base to show where the food truck is located (the beach, the park, a city street corner, etc.) The food truck will include a menu with at least 5 menu items and the prices. Students will need a few supplies in order to make this food truck. Please make sure you have the materials ready before class! A supply list is at the bottom of this description. Students are encouraged to add details and decoration to their taco trucks throughout the week outside of class.

On the second day of camp, we will learn about using decimals in money. We will briefly review the names and values of US coins and how much change makes a dollar. We will then discuss how to add and subtract numbers with decimals. We will learn how to do real world money word problems that include decimals. After the group lesson, students will be placed into break out rooms to practice adding and subtracting decimals in word problems. I will meet with each student independently to make sure they understand the lesson. 

On the third day of camp, we will learn how to count money to make change. Then, we will work through a few word problems as a group. Break out rooms will once again be used to make sure students have time to meet with me individually so that I can confirm their comprehension of the lesson. 

On the fourth and final day of camp, we will be using our complete taco trucks to simulate real world transactions with money. We will be applying all that we learned about adding and subtracting decimals and counting money to make change to complete these transactions. We will use the “guest checks” part of the printouts to take guest orders. We will add the cost of the items on the bill to get a total and then subtract the total from the amount paid to get the amount of change we must count out for the customer. These multistep math problems are excellent for applying skills learned and linking math to the real world. 

*Students must know the names and values of US coins and be able to add and subtract 4 digit numbers including regrouping/carrying/borrowing in order to participate in this class. 

*Cutting, folding, and taping are required in order to assemble the taco truck. If your student struggles with this, please sit next to them (off camera) to assist as needed.

*Supplies required for class: Printouts, scissors, tape, crayons/colored pencils/markers, cardboard/cardstock/poster board for the location of the truck, glue, and realistic play money (optional- you can use the money in the printouts if you don’t have play money)