Birthday Party Planning By: Kristin DeSisto and Ali Ward

Our Goal Students often view math as a boring subject that is difficult to understand and will not be used later in life. In our presentation we wanted to show them that math is used in numerous ways everyday, even in something as simple as planning a birthday party! We hope that they will be able to build off of this connection and find how math relates to the rest of their everyday life!

Your Job Johnny is having a birthday party and needs your help to plan the party! Use your math skills to help Johnny make decisions about planning for his party!

Invitations Johnny has 30 invitations to send to his classmates and friends. If there are 24 kids in Johnny’s class and everyone in the class is invited how many friends can he invite that are not in his class? Numbers and operations

Location Johnny needs to find a place that fits 30 guests for his party. He wants a place that is not too big or too small. In his backyard Johnny can fit 5 tables with seven people at each table and have room for games. At the local park there is room for 10 tables with eight people at each table. At the bowling alley there is room for 4 tables with 6 people at each table and there is little room for activities and games. Which would be the best choice for Johnny to have his party? Numbers and operations

Theme Johnny is trying to pick a theme for his birthday party that all of his friends would enjoy. He polled his friends to see which theme they would like to have. The three themes his friends were deciding between were pirates, the circus, and sports. When Johnny looked at the results 1/6 chose pirates, 1/3 chose sports, and ½ chose the circus. Which theme should Johnny chose for his party based on his friends responses? Data analysis

Party Decorations

Decorations Johnny can choose two types of decorations for his party. He can chose from balloons, streamers, confetti, and a banner. How many combinations can Johnny make? Number and Operations

Balloons Johnny is trying to buy balloons for his party. There are two stores in town that sell balloons. One store has four balloons for $2.00 and at the other store you can buy six balloons for $4.50. Which store should Johnny buy his balloons from in order to get the best deal? Numbers and operations

Colors of Decorations Johnny has five dollars to spend on streamers for his party. He wants to buy as many colors as he can. Each roll of streamers is $0.75. How much money will Johnny have left over after buying his streamers? Algebra

Plates Johnny bought two packs of 35 circus plates for his party. There are 10 plates with a picture of a lion on it, 15 with an elephant, twenty-five with a clown, and twenty with a circus tent. Johnny’s friend Sarah really wants to get a plate with an elephant on it. What is the probability she will get the plate with the elephant? Probability

Total Cost of Decorations Johnny needs to figure out how much he spent in all on his party decorations. If Johnny spent $4.50 on streamers, $8.00 on balloons and $17.00 on plates, cups, and napkins. How much money did Johnny spend in all? Numbers and operations

Party Favors Johnny has picked four items to put in everyone’s goody bags. Each bag will get four pieces of candy, two sheets of stickers, one clown nose, and one bottle of bubbles. How many of each item will Johnny need to fill everyone’s bag? How many items will Johnny have in total for all the bags? Numbers and operations

Party Food

Pizza Johnny needs to figure out how many pizzas he needs to order for his party. Everyone at the party will get two slices of pizza. Each pizza has eight slices. How many pizzas will Johnny need to order to feed all 30 of his guests and himself? algebra

Cake Combinations Johnny is trying to decide what type of cake he should have at his party. He can have a chocolate cake, vanilla cake, or a chocolate and vanilla mixed cake. There are four types of frosting; chocolate, vanilla, frosting with sprinkles, and vanilla with blue food coloring. How many combinations of cake can Johnny make for his party? Number and Operations

Baking the cake Johnny needs to double the recipe for baking his cake because each cake only feeds 16 people. If one cake needs 1 ½ cups of flour, how much flour will he need when he doubles the recipe? Number and operations

Party Games

Choosing a Piñata Johnny needs to chose a piñata for his circus party. He can pick a clown, a lion, or an elephant. The clown holds 60 pieces of candy, the lion holds 100 pieces of candy, and the elephant holds 160 pieces of candy. If Johnny wants everyone to get at least five pieces which piñata should he chose? Number and operations

Party Games Johnny has one hour to play games at his party and he wants everyone to play each game. Musical chairs will take 10 minutes to play and pin the tail on the donkey will take 30 minutes. How much time will Johnny have left for the piñata? Measurement

Musical Chairs Johnny has picked a song to play musical chairs with at his party. The song is 3 minutes long. Ten children can play the game at a time. How often would the song need to be stopped so that everyone besides one person is out by the end of the game? measurement

Johnny’s Birthday Presents

Picking Johnny’s Present Johnny’s friend Matt is trying to pick a present to get for Johnny. Matt has six dollars to spend on Johnny’s present. A baseball costs four dollars. Matt decides to use his change to buy candy for Johnny. If each piece costs $0.25, how many pieces can he give Johnny? algebra

Wrapping Paper Nine of Johnny’s presents are wrapped in wrapping paper. Six of Johnny’s presents are wrapped in a box. Fifteen of Johnny’s presents are in a gift bag. What is the probability that Johnny will unwrap a present in a box first? Probability

Blowing out the Candles Johnny is turning 9 years old so he will have nine birthday candles on his cake. Johnny wants to blow out all of his candles at once, but he only blows out 1/3 of the candles. How many candles does Johnny still need to blow out? Number and operations

Thank you cards Johnny wants to write everyone a thank you card for coming to his party. At the store, each package of thank you cards has 8 cards with envelopes. How many packages will Johnny need to buy so that everyone gets a card? Number and operations

Total Cost of the Party Johnny wants to figure out how much he spent in total on his birthday party. Johnny spent $30.00 on decorations, $65.00 on the pizza and cake ingredients, $12.00 on a piñata and candy to go inside, $20.00 on items for the goody bags, and $7.00 on thank you cards. How much did Johnny spend in all on his party? Number and operations

Great Job! Your math skills in number and operations, probability, algebra, measurement, and data analysis were a BIG help! Thanks for helping Johnny plan such a successful birthday party!