12 days of christmas · twelve days of christmas ©"2013"bybradfultonandtttpress "...

© 2013 by Brad Fulton and TTT Press

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By Brad Fulton Educator of the Year, 2005 b r a d @ t t t p r e s s . c o m w w w . t t t p r e s s . c o m

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A Fun Holiday Lesson Using Computer Spreadsheets

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Twelve Days of Christmas


Known throughout the country for motivating and engaging teachers and students, Brad has co-authored over a dozen books that provide easy-to-teach yet mathematically rich activities for busy teachers while teaching full time for over 30 years. In addition, he has co-authored over 40 teacher training manuals full of activities and ideas that help teachers who believe mathematics must be both meaningful and powerful.

Seminar leader and trainer of mathematics teachers ♦ 2005 California League of Middle Schools Educator of the Year ♦ California Math Council and NCTM national featured presenter ♦ Lead trainer for summer teacher training institutes ♦ Trainer/consultant for district, county, regional, and national workshops

Author and co-author of mathematics curriculum ♦ Simply Great Math Activities series: six books covering all major strands ♦ Angle On Geometry Program: over 400 pages of research-‐based geometry instruction ♦ Math Discoveries series: bringing math alive for students in middle schools ♦ Teacher training seminar materials handbooks for elementary, middle, and secondary school

Available for workshops, keynote addresses, and conferences All workshops provide participants with complete, ready-‐to-‐use activities that require minimal preparation and give clear and specific directions. Participants also receive journal prompts, homework suggestions, and ideas for extensions and assessment. Brad's math activities are the best I've seen in 38 years of teaching! Wayne Dequer, 7th grade math teacher, Arcadia, CA “I can't begin to tell you how much you have inspired me!” Sue Bonesteel, Math Dept. Chair, Phoenix, AZ “Your entire audience was fully involved in math!! When they chatted, they chatted math. Real thinking!” Brenda McGaffigan, principal, Santa Ana, CA “Absolutely engaging. I can teach algebra to second graders!” Lisa Fellers, teacher

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Name____________________________________ Date__________________

Twelve Days of Christmas What would it cost to give your true love the gifts of the 12 Days of Christmas? Let’s use a computer to solve the problem.

1. Open Excel or similar spreadsheet software. 2. In cell A1 type: Day 3. In cell B1 type: Gift 4. In cell C1 type: Cost Each 5. In cell D1 type: Extended Cost

Tip: If you find that the titles don’t fit, you can widen the column by putting the cursor at the location shown and dragging it to the right.

6. In cell A2 type: 1 7. In cell A3 type: =A2+1 Then press enter 8. Highlight from cell A3 to cell A13 and select Fill Down. This is found under

the Edit menu on some versions and can also be activated by Ctrl+D. 9. In cells B2 through B13 type the names (not the quantities) of the gifts.

Remember that on the first day, your true love receives both a partridge and a pear tree. (You may have to widen the columns again.) If you don’t remember all the gifts, you will find them on the next page.

10. In cells C2 through C13 type the individual costs of the gifts. This information can also be found on the next page.

11. In cell D2 type: =A2*C2 12. Fill down from cell D2 through D13 (as you did in step 8 above). 13. In cell C14 type: Total Cost Then set the font to boldface 14. In cell D14 type: =sum(D2:D13) Then press enter 15. Click the D at the top of the column. Under the “Home” or “Format” tab,

select “Number” and set the format to “Currency”. What does this do to the numbers in column D? ______________________________________________________________

16. Which gift has the highest individual cost? __________________

17. Which day has the highest cost? __________________

18. What is the total cost or your true love’s gifts? __________________

19. What would be the total cost if the most expensive gift was on sale for 25%

off and leaping lords were buy one – get one free? __________________


On the twelfth day

of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

12 drummers drumming

11 pipers piping 10 lords a-leaping 9 ladies dancing 8 maids a-milking

7 swans a-swimming

6 geese a-laying 5 golden rings 4 calling birds 3 French hens 2 Turtle doves

And a partridge in a pear tree

Store Receipt

Thanks for shopping with us!

Calling bird ............

... $150.00

Drummer .................. $245.00

French hen ................ $52.50

Gold ring .................. $150.00

Goose .......................

. $33.00

Lady dancer ............. $839.00

Leaping lord ............... $52.43

Milk maid ..................... $

7.25

Partridge .................... $15.00

Pear tree .................... $49.95

Piper ......................

.. $239.00

Swan ..................... $1,000.00

Turtle dove ................. $62.50

Thank you. Come again!

Great Idea: If you would like to make a graph of your data, select cells C2 through C13. Then select “Insert” and “Chart” or “Graph”. A bar graph works nicely. You can also do the same for cells D2 through D13.


Answer Key:

Here is a picture of the finished spreadsheet:

Here are the answers to the fill-in-the-blanks:

15. This makes all the prices look like dollars and cents.

16. The swans have the highest individual cost.

17. The swans also make the seventh day the highest cost.

18. $22,597.75

19. This question can be solved by changing the swan cost to $750 (25%

off) and changing the number of leaping lords to 5 (since half are

free). This is done by changing the “Day”, which is also the number of

gifts, to 5. This lowers the overall price to $18,165.60.


Here is how the two graphs look:

Cost Each:

Extended Cost:

No computer? No problem! Use the activity master on the following page so your students can solve the problems with calculators or pencil and paper.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

$0.00

$1,000.00

$2,000.00

$3,000.00

$4,000.00

$5,000.00

$6,000.00

$7,000.00

$8,000.00

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12


Name_____________________________________ Date__________________

Twelve Days of Christmas


The Common Core Connection This activity can be used not only to teach technology applications but also to teach these grade level standards: 5th grade Numbers and Operations in Base Ten

CCSS.Math.Content.5.NBT.B.5 Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.

Operations and Algebraic Thinking CCSS.Math.Content.5.OA.A.2 Write simple expressions that record calculations with numbers, and interpret numerical expressions without evaluating them.

6th grade Expressions and Equations

CCSS.Math.Content.6.EE.A.2 Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for numbers. CCSS.Math.Content.6.EE.A.2a Write expressions that record operations with numbers and with letters standing for numbers. For example, express the calculation “Subtract y from 5” as 5 – y. CCSS.Math.Content.6.EE.A.2b Identify parts of an expression using mathematical terms (sum, term, product, factor, quotient, coefficient); view one or more parts of an expression as a single entity.

7th grade Expressions and Equations

CCSS.Math.Content.7.EE.B.4 Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities.

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