1.3 Financial problems and drawing up a budget

Mathematics

Grade 4

Whole numbers and their relationships

Module 4

Financial problems and drawing up a simple budget

Activity:

To solve problems in context including economic and environmental issues such as: financial problems and drawing up a simple budget [LU 1.6]

1. MONEY MATTERS

In the Foundation Phase you discovered how many cents, 2-cents, 5-cents etc. there are in R1. Now see how clever you are!

Many shops do not use 1c pieces any longer.

2. SHOPPING FOR STATIONERY

Before school started at the beginning of the year, you had to do some shopping at the hypermarket. The prices of the different items are shown in the next frame.

2.1 How much in total would each child have had to pay the cashier if he/she had bought the following items:

1. Jane bought a diary and a ruler.
2. Andrew bought a calculator, a writing pad and 2 pencils.
3. Hetty bought a set of pencil crayons and a glue stick.
4. Mandy bought a pen, a ruler, an eraser and a pencil sharpener.
5. Brian bought an exercise book, a diary, a writing pad and a pen.

2.2 How much did all the above children spend on stationary altogether?

3. MONEY IN SHOPS

3.1 In the large shops, the prices of items include cents. Cashiers, however, do not worry with one-cent and two-cent pieces. Cashiers always take your change up to the next 5c. Thus, if you should receive 17c change, you will be given 20c. Change is always “taken upwards”; this is not rounding off. Why do you think shops do this? Do shops lose much money because of this? Discuss this with your friends and then write down your answer.

3.2 Now pretend that you are working behind a till in a shop. The till tells you how much change you must give to each customer, but you must decide which notes and coins to give. You have to give the fewest notes and coins possible.

Now complete the table (the first one has been done for you):

3.3 Remember that it is the change is rounded off upwards, not the amount that the customer owes. If the change should be R78,76, what is the customer actually given?

4. AT SCHOOL: BELONGINGS: GROUP DISCUSSION AND PROBLEM SOLVING

The “Lost Property” box was full of equipment! The educator was tired of picking up the belongings that had been left on the floor and desks. She told the learners that, if nobody had claimed these belongings by the end of the week, she would give the most well-mannered learners a chance to choose 2 different items from the box and these would then be their property. For example, one combination might be a pencil and a ruler or a pencil and a sharpener or a glue stick and a pencil There was much excitement as the learners tried to decide which two items they would choose.