Scale the Recipe and Cost It From the Circular

Standards

Enduring understanding and essential question

Big idea: A recipe is written for four people. Feeding a room means multiplying everything, then rounding up to what the store will actually sell you, then checking that the answer still feeds everybody. The store does not sell three quarters of a box.
Essential question: How do you turn a recipe for four into a plan for twenty-eight without running out and without wasting money?

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. (Low, Day 1) Given a recipe for 4 servings and a target of 28 portions, compute the scale factor and multiply every ingredient amount correctly.
2. (Mid, Day 1 and Day 2) Given scaled amounts and real package sizes, convert between cups, fluid ounces, and ounces where needed, round each ingredient up to the number of packages the store sells, and run a yield check that shows the plan feeds at least 30.
3. (High, Day 2) Given this week's circular, cost the whole scaled recipe line by line with a running total, and when the total is over the station budget, revise it with a named swap and state in writing what the swap saved and what it cost in quality.

Vocabulary

Tier 2 (general academic): scale, convert, round up, revise, running total
Tier 3 (FACS): yield, portion, per serving, unit price, food cost, store brand, purchasable unit. See the unit vocabulary list for Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Materials and setup

• Handout, one per student: Handout 06.13 - Scaling Worksheet and Costing Sheet.md (the base recipe for each of the five options, the scaling table, the unit conversion strip, the yield check, the costing sheet with a running total, and the swap log)
• One real supermarket circular per student, this week's, same store for the whole class. [Sal: get a stack from the store's front door or print the digital circular. Same store for everybody, or the peer check in Step 4 does not work.]
• A calculator per student. Everyone gets one; this is not a mental math lesson.
• One dry measuring cup set, one liquid measuring cup, and one real package of each of these on the front table for the conversion demo: a 1 lb box of pasta, a 24 oz jar of sauce, an 8 oz bag of shredded cheese, a 32 oz box of broth or stock
• A kitchen scale if the room has one, for the ounces-by-weight versus fluid-ounces demo
• Four large "running total" sheets, one per station, taped up so every team can see every other team's total
• Slides: Slides 06.13 - Scale the Recipe and Cost It From the Circular (outline in 05 Materials; the site renders it as a deck)
• Setup notes: put the four packages and the two measuring cups on the front table before the bell. Write the station budget ($20.00) and the class total ($80.00) on the board and leave them there both days. No food is eaten; the demo packages go back on the shelf unopened.

Pre-assessment

Lesson 1.7 (Reading a Recipe) taught doubling and halving and Lesson 1.16 taught unit price. The do now on Day 1 is a one-item read on whether doubling survived the winter: "A recipe for 4 needs 1 1/2 cups of sauce. How much for 8?" If more than a third of the room misses it, run the two-minute reteach in the Day 1 teacher notes before Step 1.

Do now and hook

Day 1 (Time: 4 min). On the board: "A recipe for 4 people needs 1 1/2 cups of sauce. How much sauce for 8 people? For 28 people? Write both answers. You may use a calculator for the second one."

Debrief: take the answer for 8 (3 cups) from one student and the answer for 28 (10 1/2 cups) from another, then ask the hook question and do not answer it: "The store does not sell 10 1/2 cups of sauce. It sells jars. How many jars?" Leave it on the board.

Day 2 (Time: 4 min). On the board, with the circular already at every seat: "Find the cheapest shredded mozzarella in this circular. Write the brand, the size in ounces, and the price. Then write the price for one ounce."

Debrief: two answers on the board, one name brand and one store brand, with the price per ounce next to each. Then the hook: "Same cheese, same amount, different number. Today every line on your sheet gets that number, and the total has to come in under twenty dollars."

Procedure

Day 1: scaling and the yield check

Day 1 total: 4 + 8 + 12 + 9 + 5 = 38, plus a 2-minute closure.

Day 2: costing it from the circular

Day 2 total: 4 + 7 + 13 + 10 + 6 = 40, with the 2-minute closure inside Step 4. If the period is tight, Step 4's peer check moves to the first 6 minutes of Lesson 6.14 and Step 3 gets the time, because the revision is the part that teaches.

Questions to ask

Monitor understanding:

• What is your scale factor, and where did the two numbers come from?
• That line says 3.5 boxes. How many boxes do you buy, and why not three?
• Is that 8 ounces weight or 8 fluid ounces? How do you know from the package?
• Your running total is at $17.40 and you have two lines left. Are you going to make it?
• What is the price per ounce on that item? Now do the store brand. Which one goes on the list?

Deepen learning:

• Why does the store brand cost less for the same amount? What are you actually paying for on the other label?
• You rounded up on five lines. Add up the extra you are buying. Is that waste, or is it insurance? Which one would a restaurant call it?
• A restaurant calls the cost of the food in a dish its food cost, and the price on the menu is usually about three times that. What would your dish sell for? Does that number surprise you?
• Your swap saved eighty cents and made the dish a little worse. When is that a good trade and when is it not?
• If the class grew to 56, which line on your sheet would stop being a good deal, and why?

Check for understanding

Day 1: clipboard walk during Step 2, a yes or no per station on "the scale factor is right" and "at least one line is correctly rounded up to a package." Day 2: the four taped-up running totals at minute 24 are the whole-class check, visible to everybody at once. The exit card each day names the one number the station is least sure about, which tells you exactly where to stand tomorrow.

Closure

Day 1 (Time: 2 min). One line on an exit card: "Our plan makes ___ portions, and the ingredient I am least sure we scaled right is ___." Sort the cards into "clears 30" and "does not" before Day 2 and start Day 2 with the stations that do not.

Day 2 (Time: 2 min, inside Step 4's time). Each station reads two numbers out loud: its final total and its cost per person (total divided by 28). Write the four costs per person on the board and add them for the class number. Ask one question and let it sit: "Could a family eat for that?" The signed costing sheet is page 2 of the project folder.

Differentiation and supports

• ELL: the conversion strip is pictures of the four packages with the numbers on them, not sentences; the costing sheet's column headings have the Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish word under the English (see Vocabulary 06.md); the swap log has a sentence frame in all four languages; a circular is a picture document, which is one reason this lesson works well for a newcomer.
• IEP and 504 (general): a calculator for everyone; the scaling table can be filled with the scale factor pre-printed for any student who needs it (page 3 of the handout has a version with the factor already entered); the running total column has the first two rows worked as an example; extended time carries into the start of Lesson 6.14; a student who finds the circular visually overwhelming gets the four-page excerpt on page 5 of the handout with only the items this project needs.
• Grade 6 support: the recipe is given already scaled to 28 and the task is the rounding, the yield check, and the costing (Objectives 2 and 3 only). Or keep the scaling and use a scale factor of 7 with whole-number amounts only, which the handout's grade 6 recipe version does.
• Grade 8 stretch: compute the cost per portion to the tenth of a cent, then compute what the dish would have to sell for at a food cost of 30 percent, and compare that to a real menu price the student finds online for the same dish. A second stretch: recompute the plan for 28 portions at a serving size 25 percent larger and say which lines change.
• UDL checkpoint used: multiple means of representation (the conversion taught with a real package in hand, a picture on the strip, and a number sentence on the board) and multiple means of action and expression (the running total can be written, typed, or kept on a calculator tape taped to the sheet).
• No-kitchen alternative: not needed; no cooking either day. The demo packages can be borrowed from any classroom or brought from home if the room has no pantry.

Allergy line

No food is handled or tasted. The demo packages stay sealed and go home with the teacher. Every station rechecks its plan against the posted allergy list during Day 2 Step 3, because a swap can introduce an allergen (a cheaper cheese blend with a different milk source, a store-brand cookie made on shared equipment), and the swap log has a box for it.

Assessment

Rubric 06 criterion 1 (the scaling math and the yield) is scored from the Day 1 scaling table and the yield check.

Homework

None required. Optional, one line: find one item in your kitchen at home, write its size and its price if you know it, and compute the price per ounce. Bring the number.

Connections

Math: this is ratio, unit rate, and unit conversion doing real work. The scale factor is a ratio, the price per ounce is a unit rate, and the cups to fluid ounces to ounces problem is the conversion the math class teaches abstractly. Give the math teacher the four costing sheets; they are a ready-made unit rate problem set with an answer that matters. FACS gives math a real data set and a reason; math gives FACS the words and the method students already know, and, if the teacher is willing, ten minutes to check the four running totals on Day 2. [Sal: ask the math teacher in September which grade does unit rate and when, so Unit 6 lands after it.]

Sources

• NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 06, Food Systems and Production (nyctecenter.org, June 2018), lines 1. d), 5. a), and 5. c). Copy in 02 Standards/NYS Module PDFs/.
• NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module 03, Financial and Consumer Literacy, lines 4. f) and 4. g). Same folder.
• NYS Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences (1996), Standard 3, Intermediate. Wording per 02 Standards/STANDARDS CROSSWALK.md, Part A.6. [Sal: confirm against the NYSED PDF.]
• CDOS Intermediate Standards 2 and 3a, Basic Skills, per 02 Standards/STANDARDS CROSSWALK.md, Part A.7.
• National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education 3.0 (LEAD FCS Education, 2018), competencies 2.1.3, 8.4.7, and 8.5.3, per 02 Standards/STANDARDS SOURCES - web research.md.
• Sal's own materials: education_teaching_facs_kingkullen_shoppinglist_2026_03.pdf (eleven items for 112 students across four periods and four kitchens on a $150 budget, with the store-brand swap list and the savings per swap) is the model for the swap log. education_teaching_facs_kingkullen_8thgrademenuoptions_2026_03.pdf supplies the base prices. All prices marked [update from this week's circular].

Teacher notes

• Two-minute reteach if the do now goes badly: put 1 1/2 cups on the board, double it to 3 cups by writing 1 1/2 + 1 1/2, then write 1 1/2 x 7 as 1 1/2 + 1 1/2 + ... seven times and let a student count it to 10 1/2. Multiplying a mixed number is where grade 6 stalls, not the idea of scaling.
• The single most common error in two days is mixing ounces by weight with fluid ounces. It shows up on cheese, sauce, and sour cream. Say it on Day 1 with the bag in your hand, and say it again on Day 2 when you see it.
• The second most common error is rounding down to save money. The answer is the yield check: a plan that feeds 26 is not a cheaper plan, it is a failed plan.
• Do not solve the over-budget station's problem for them. Ask one question: "Which line is the biggest number on your sheet?" That is almost always where the swap is.
• Taping the four running totals up where everybody can see them does two things: it makes the class total real, and it makes a station that is way off notice before you tell them.
• [Sal: your King Kullen swaps saved $14.40 on cookies, $6.00 on whipped topping, $5.99 on butter, and $3.99 on cups, which is $30.38 on a $150 order. Put those four real swaps on the Day 2 slide. It is the most convincing thing in the lesson because you actually did it.]
• Keep every signed costing sheet. Lesson 6.15 consolidates all four into one shopping list, and Lesson 6.17's reflection compares the planned cost to what the register actually said.