Budgie Buying

As with those for pages 11 and 23, this activity provides opportunities for the mathematical processes achievement objectives listed above. You may decide to select one or two of them for particular attention.
This activity uses a series of transactions as a problem-solving context. The problems involve a variety of computation skills.
Encourage students to be systematic and to list each of the individual transactions in a debit or expenses column on a chart. They could also keep a running total of what has been spent to date and another of what amount of money is left. At any one time, the sum of the rows across the columns should be $70.
This is an ideal activity to work out on a computer spreadsheet. The spreadsheet may look something like this example:

The debit total column will have a formula that adds all the previous debits.
The credit remaining column will have a formula that subtracts the debit total from $70.

Answers to Activity

1. a. $47.95
b. $22.05
2. a. $5.39, rounded to $5.40
b. $6.23, rounded to $6.25
c. $10.40
3. $8.15
4. Yes. The bell, ladder, and cuttlefish would cost $5.21 (rounded to $5.20) at sale price. Alison had $8.55 left after she bought the extra perch ($10.40 – $1.85). The packet of seeds would cost $1.70. $5.20 + $1.70 = $6.90, so Alison does have enough money for extra bird seed.