How much should you spend at this sale?

This activity can be used in a large range of grade levels. Your class can work on percents, linear equations or piecewise functions.

Act One: We missed the semi-annual sale but we want to get ready for the next one. Let’s figure out how much we could save.

Act Two: What amounts make sense to spend up to get the best deal? What purchase amounts do not make sense to make? Try shopping the gap with your students and apply the appropriate discount yourself.

Find your cost for the items in this pdf.

Note to teachers: In this sale, if you spend $75 you get 30% off, but if you spend $25 more, getting up to $100 you save 30%. If you spend $124 you also get 30% off. Anything $125 or more is 40% off.

Create a graph with the value of your purchase on the x -axis (before this discount) and what you actually pay on the y-axis (after discount). How does this graph help you see which price points are the best deal?

Act Three: Word doc, solutions and graphs. A great way to sum up the lesson is to ask kids… “if you are going to buy $74 worth of clothes then you might as well buy $______ worth of clothes.”