A real-world budgeting challenge where students apply rational number operations—decimals, fractions, and percentages—to stay within a $75 back-to-school budget.
In this interactive worksheet, students take on the role of a savvy shopper preparing for a new school year with a limited budget. Using real-world prices, discounts, tax rates, and savings goals, they must solve multi-step problems involving all four operations with rational numbers. This activity supports mastery of 7.EE.B.3 by reinforcing practical applications of decimals, fractions, and percents. Students will reason strategically, make decisions based on mathematical calculations, and determine whether their spending meets the financial constraints.
Skills Practiced:
Students will apply operations with rational numbers—including decimals, fractions, and percentages—to solve multi-step real-world budgeting problems. They will reason strategically, convert between forms, and evaluate whether their spending decisions meet given financial constraints.
If randomization is enabled, each student will receive a unique version of the activity with different item prices, tax rates, and discount percentages. This ensures individualized practice and reduces copying, while keeping the overall structure and learning objectives consistent.
💡 Tip: When assigning this activity to your classroom, you can optionally enable randomization to give each student a unique version of the problems. When you re-assign the same worksheet, each student will get a new set of questions, helping them master the content through repeated practice.
Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.
All 6.NS.B.3 activities →Solve multi-step real-life and mathematical problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form (whole numbers, fractions, and decimals), using tools strategically. Apply properties of operations to calculate with numbers in any form; convert between forms as appropriate; and assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies. *For example: If a woman making $25 an hour gets a 10% raise, she will make an additional 1/10 of her salary an hour, or $2.50, for a new salary of $27.50. If you want to place a towel bar 9 3/4 inches long in the center of a door that is 27 1/2 inches wide, you will need to place the bar about 9 inches from each edge; this estimate can be used as a check on the exact computation*.
All 7.EE.B.3 activities →Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving the four operations with rational numbers.
All 7.NS.A.3 activities →Use proportional relationships to solve multistep ratio and percent problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, percent error.
All 7.RP.A.3 activities →
More interactive, auto-graded activities on the same standards and topics.
The activity revolves around the concept of baking a Christmas cake on a tight budget compared to the cost of purchasing one from a store. Students will be guided through ingredient conversions, cost calculations, and the joy of creating a homemade treat.
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In this real-world math challenge, students use percent skills to shop smart at a tech store. They apply discounts, markups, and sales tax to build a tech bundle within a $150 budget, developing proportional reasoning and financial literacy.
Students will use the simple interest formula and its variations to find the interest, principal to be deposited, and the interest rate they should be looking for to get $100,000 after 10 years for their dream house.
Students will use the simple interest formula and its variations to find the interest, principal to be deposited, and the interest rate they should be looking for to get $100,000 after 10 years for their dream house.
