Teaching Combinations? Use Arby’s

Do you throw away your weekly sales ads from the paper and other junk mail?  Think twice before trashing your next set of sales ads…especially if you are teaching combinations.  Combinations in math naturally lend themselves to teaching about the number of possible  ways you can put sandwiches together.  Capitalize on this idea and show students something that will make a connection to their real lives such as fast food restaurants– McDonalds, Arby’s, or Burger King.  Discuss the number of ways that students could order a Big Mac, Whopper, or roast beef sandwich–different buns, cheeses, or other toppings.  Clip pictures from these type of ads and use them to show students and to embellish your bulletin board.  I have included a picture of a bulletin board that I created using an Arby’s slogan to stimulate student’s interest in combinations.  The pictures on the board were clipped from a weekly sales ad.  The papers on the board are student work about combinations of Arby’s sandwiches.  To download the student sheet on the bulletin board, click Combinations Arby’s.