Compare the cost.
Work out each dinner’s total, its cost per serving, and how it fits a $20 budget.
Full lesson plan · Food and household life
What’s really on your plate?
Every dinner is a decision about money, time, and tradition. Students compare three ways one family could eat tonight, then trace where the food comes from and what gets thrown away.
FULL LESSONAGES 11–14 · 30 MINMATH · SOCIAL STUDIES · HUMAN ECOLOGY
Built from the “What’s really on your plate?” sample lesson. The household, prices, and labels are fictional.
TONIGHT’S DINNER, FOLLOWED OUTWARD.
Lesson at a glance✳Grades 6–8✳One 30-minute period✳Pairs + whole class✳Calculators helpful
Why this lesson
A meal is a set
of decisions.
What a family eats depends on more than taste.
Time, money, access, and culture each have a say.
A weeknight dinner connects a household budget to farms and warehouses hundreds of miles away, to the time adults have after work, and to recipes passed down through a family. Students start with a choice they already know, what’s for dinner, and follow it outward: what it costs, where the ingredients come from, what is left over, and who in the household does the work.
There is no single right dinner. Students see the trade-offs a household weighs every night, then answer the sample lesson’s question: how might the best choice differ for another household?
Learning objectives
By the end of class, students can…
Read the label.
Find where two ingredients come from, and name what the labels and the menu leave out.
See the whole meal.
Explain how time, money, access, and culture shape what one household eats.
Weigh a change.
Suggest one way to reduce waste and name the trade-off it creates.
Before class
Materials and prep
About 10 minutes of prep. Everything students need is on this page and in the student pack (PDF).
A note on privacy. Food and money can be sensitive topics. Students talk about the fictional household, not their own. No one needs to share what they eat or spend at home.
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Household card | One per pair. Page 1 of the student pack. |
| Three dinner cards | One set per pair. Page 1 of the student pack. Cut apart, or show on screen. |
| Student worksheet | One per student. Pages 2 and 3 of the student pack. |
| Calculators | Phones are fine. |
| Board space | For the warm-up answers and the four-forces chart. |
| Answer key | In the “Check the numbers” section, or page 4 of the teacher guide. |
Vocabulary to preview: budget, ingredient, cost per serving, packaging, leftovers, food waste.
The case
Meet the Ellis family.
The Ellis family is fictional. Change the names, the recipe, or the prices to fit your community.
HOUSEHOLD CARD
Ava, 12, her dad, her grandmother, and her brother Leo, 8
It’s Tuesday. Dad works until 6:00 and gets home at 6:30. Grandma volunteers at the library until 5:00. She likes to cook the chicken soup her mother taught her to make. Leo has soccer practice until 6:00 and comes home hungry. The family wants dinner on the table by 7:00.
They shop once a week, on Saturdays, at a grocery store 3 miles away. The corner store on their block sells milk, bread, and snacks, but no fresh meat.
| Food budget | Amount |
|---|---|
| Food for the whole week | $160 |
| Already planned for other meals | −$140 |
| Set aside for tonight’s dinner | $20 |
Already in the kitchen, not counted in any price: salt, pepper, spices, and cooking oil.
Grandma’s chicken soup
$13.50 · makes 8 servings
Cooked at home from the Saturday shopping
- Whole chicken $8.00 · raised in-state, about 150 miles away
- Rice $1.50 · grown in Arkansas
- Carrots $1.20 · grown in California
- Onion $0.80 · grown in Washington
- Celery $1.50 · product of Mexico
- Garlic $0.50 · no label
- Time: 15 minutes to prep, 60 minutes to simmer
- Cook: Grandma, with help chopping
- Left over: 4 servings for lunches, chicken bones, vegetable peels, a foam tray and plastic wrap
Stir-fry meal kit
$24.00 · makes 4 servings
Delivered to the door in a box
- Chicken · product of USA
- Broccoli · product of Mexico
- Rice · product of Thailand
- Sauce packet · packed in Ohio
- Kit put together at a kitchen 300 miles away
- Time: 25 minutes to cook
- Cook: Ava and Dad, following the recipe card
- Left over: a cardboard box, 7 small plastic bags, an ice pack, a plastic sauce cup
Pizza delivery
$27.00 · 2 large pizzas
$22 for the pizzas + $5 delivery fee
- 16 slices; the family usually eats 12
- The menu lists the toppings, not where they come from
- Time: about 40 minutes from order to door
- Cook: no one; anyone can place the order
- Left over: 4 slices, 2 greasy pizza boxes, napkins, 2 plastic sauce cups
Lesson sequence · 30 minutes
Choose. Investigate. Connect. Reflect.
Students work in pairs on the worksheet and come together as a class for the warm-up and the four-forces chart.
- 3Warm-up
What decides dinner?
TeacherWrite the question on the board. Collect five or six answers and sort them into four columns: Time, Money, Access, and Culture. Keep the chart up for later.StudentsCall out answers about any household: one they know, one from a show, or one they imagine.What decides what a family has for dinner on a busy weeknight?
- 4Choose
Meet the Ellis family.
TeacherHand out the household card and the three dinner cards. Point out the $20 for tonight and dinner by 7:00.StudentsRead the cards in pairs. At the top of the worksheet, circle the dinner you would pick and list its ingredients. - 10Investigate
Add it up and read the labels.
TeacherCirculate. Check that pairs divide by servings, not by people, for the soup. Ask early finishers what each dinner would cost if the family ate it every Tuesday for four weeks.StudentsComplete Part 1: cost, budget, cost per serving, and time. Then Part 2: where two ingredients come from and what the labels don’t say.Which dinner costs the least? Which takes the most time, and whose time is it?
- 8Connect
Time, money, access, culture.
TeacherReturn to the warm-up chart. For each column, ask which dinner it favors. Then change one fact at a time: “Grandma has to stay at the library until 6:30.” “The family missed Saturday’s shopping.” Ask what changes.StudentsComplete Part 3: one sentence on how each force shapes the Ellis family’s choice.TimeWho has it, and when?Money$20 tonight, $160 a weekAccessWhat the stores nearby sellCultureA recipe passed down - 5Reflect
Less waste, a new trade-off.
TeacherCollect exit tickets. Read three trade-offs aloud to open the next class.StudentsComplete Part 4 on the worksheet.Suggest one change that would reduce waste from your dinner. What trade-off might it create? How might the best choice differ for another household?
Investigate · teacher view
Check the numbers.
Use this after pairs finish Part 1, or keep it closed and use it as your answer key.
Open the answer key
| A · Soup | B · Kit | C · Pizza | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost tonight | $13.50 | $24.00 | $27.00 |
| Compared with $20 | $6.50 left | $4.00 over | $7.00 over |
| Servings | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per serving | $1.69 | $6.00 | $6.75 |
| Minutes until dinner | 75 | 25 | 40 |
| Every Tuesday for four weeks | $54 | $96 | $108 |
Discussion points. The soup costs the least in total and per serving, and it leaves four lunches. It also takes the most time, and it only works because Grandma is home by 5:00. The meal kit is quick to cook but goes $4 over budget and leaves the most packaging. The pizza needs no cooking, costs the most, and its menu says nothing about where the food comes from. Missing information worth naming: whether everyone in the family likes soup, how the meal kit travels to the door, whether the pizza boxes can be recycled where the family lives, and what else the $160 has to cover this week.
Assessment
What to look for
Grade the reasoning. A student who picks the soup and a student who picks the pizza can both earn full marks. No dinner is the one right answer.
| Criterion | Beginning | Developing | Strong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calculates accurately | Compares the total prices only | Finds cost per serving with minor errors | Correct totals, budget difference, and cost per serving for all three dinners |
| Traces where food comes from | Copies a place from a label | Names where two ingredients come from | Names two origins and one thing the label leaves out |
| Considers more than cost | Chooses on price alone | Mentions time or tradition | Weighs money against time, access, and culture for this family |
| Proposes a change | Names a change | Names a change and one effect | Names a change and the trade-off it creates for someone in the household |
Make it fit your class
Adapt the lesson.
Fewer numbers
Pre-fill the soup column so pairs see the pattern. Skip cost per serving and compare each total with the $20.
Price it locally
Pairs look up the soup ingredients at a store near school and compare their total with $13.50. Or they design a fourth dinner that stays under $20.
A family recipe
Students ask an adult: “Is there a dish someone taught you to make? Who taught you?” They share the name of the dish next class, not what the family eats or spends.
Older students (ages 15–18): give pairs the full $160 weekly budget and have them plan seven dinners for the Ellis family.
STUDENT WORKSHEET
What’s really on the Ellis family’s plate?
Name ________________________ Partner ________________________
Choose: Circle the dinner you would pick: A · Soup B · Kit C · Pizza. List its ingredients.
Part 1 · Add it up ($20 for tonight)
| A · Soup | B · Kit | C · Pizza | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost tonight | |||
| Left over or over budget ($20 − total) | |||
| Servings | |||
| Cost per serving (total ÷ servings) | |||
| Minutes until dinner | |||
| Who does the work? |
Part 2 · Read the labels
| Ingredient | Which dinner? | Where it comes from | One thing the label doesn’t tell you |
|---|---|---|---|
Part 3 · Time, money, access, culture
How does each one shape what the Ellis family eats tonight?
Time
Money
Access
Culture
Part 4 · Exit ticket
One change that would reduce waste from our dinner:
One trade-off that change creates:
How might the best choice differ for another household?
Keep exploring
Try another lesson.
Each sample lesson starts with one everyday choice and follows where it leads.