I am Noah! Today, we are playing the Grocery Game! Put on your thinking caps, because we are going to use our brain-power to add up prices and calculate change without using a calculator. This is called mental math, and it is a skill that will make you feel like a financial superhero. Whether you are at a school bake sale or helping your parents at the supermarket, being fast with numbers helps you stay in control of your money!I am Maya. I will show you how to estimate. Estimating is like making a super-smart guess. It helps you stay in the right ballpark so you know if the total the cashier gives you sounds correct. If you think your total should be around twenty dollars and they say fifty, your estimation skills will tell you something is wrong! Estimating is the first step to being a smart shopper.I am Chloe. We will tackle bigger numbers too! Imagine you are helping out at a school event—like a fundraiser or a car wash—and someone gives you a big bill for a large order. We will show you how to find the change fast and accurately. It keeps the line moving and keeps your customers happy. Math is the secret to a successful business!And I am Liam. Every time you practice these math facts, you get faster and more confident. Addition and subtraction are like muscles; the more you exercise them, the stronger they get. Let us start our grocery adventure with some simple whole-dollar items. Remember, we aren’t worrying about taxes today—just the price on the tag!Okay, let’s fill our basket. Imagine you are buying a few things for a picnic. A carton of milk is four dollars, a loaf of bread is three dollars, a bag of apples is five dollars, and a box of cereal is six dollars. To find the total, we just add them up in our heads. Four plus three is seven. Seven plus five is twelve. And twelve plus six is… eighteen! Our total is eighteen dollars. Now, if we give the cashier a twenty-dollar bill, we need to find the change. Twenty minus eighteen is two. You get two dollars back! That’s two loonies. Doing this while you walk through the store is a great way to make sure you have enough money before you even get to the checkout counter.Now, let’s try a bigger challenge for our school event. Someone comes up to your table and buys a bunch of items. The total cost is two hundred and thirty-four dollars. They hand you two hundred and fifty dollars in cash. Don’t panic! First, let’s use Maya’s estimation trick. Two hundred and thirty-four is very close to two hundred and thirty-five. Two hundred and fifty minus two hundred and thirty-five is fifteen. So we know our change should be around fifteen or sixteen dollars. Now, let’s do the exact subtraction. Two hundred and fifty minus two hundred and thirty-four equals sixteen dollars! To give them the change, you can give them a ten-dollar bill, a five-dollar bill, and one loonie. Ten plus five plus one is sixteen. You’ve just handled a big transaction like a pro!Mental math is all about strategies. One of my favorite tips is to break numbers apart. If you are adding forty-five and twenty-three, don’t try to do it all at once. Add the tens first: forty plus twenty is sixty. Then add the ones: five plus three is eight. Sixty plus eight is sixty-eight! This strategy makes big numbers much less scary. Another trick is “counting up” for change. If the cost is twelve dollars and they give you twenty, count up from twelve: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… that’s three… then a five-dollar bill gets you to twenty. Three plus five is eight! These tricks make you faster and build your accuracy. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can calculate once you start practicing these every day.Calculating change is an important skill for being a helpful member of your community. Whether you are at a school event, a local store, or even a garage sale, these math facts are your best friends. It shows you are responsible and pay attention to the details. Real-life situations are the best places to practice. Next time you are out shopping with your family, try to calculate the total in your head before the cashier hits the button. See how close you can get! It’s like a game that makes you smarter every time you play. We are proud of your math progress. Take a look at the shopping list in your lesson and try to calculate the total and the change for each scenario. See how fast you can do it in your head! We will see you in the next video where we will talk about the five big words of money!And don’t forget, using math in the real world is about more than just numbers—it’s about confidence. When you know the math, you can’t be tricked, and you can help others who might be struggling with their calculations. It’s a way to be a leader in your community. Every loonie and every five-dollar bill counts, and knowing exactly where they are going is the first step to financial freedom. We’ve seen how to handle grocery lists and big event totals, and now it’s your turn to try it out. Go ahead and start your brain workout! We’ll be here to guide you through the next steps of your money journey. Keep those mental muscles moving!
