Hey, Hey, I have been sewing my fingers to the bone. I show at ONE craft fair each year. It is a groovy fundraiser with no crocheted tissue box covers or starched doily angels. Each year the unaffiliated group chooses a local charity to sponsor. We all donate an item that is worth at least $20, then gift baskets are made and a raffle begins...my favorite kind, you put the tickets in the tin in front of the basket you WANT. Love that. Last year I won the only basket tin I put my tickets into: jam, a tin Obama altar folkart thingie, a lapiz necklace, hair doo-dahs (kids get to make stuff too and sell it!) and an amazing lamp globe that was Tom Waits themed (he lives in our county, and shops in our town). (See what what I mean...cool). I treated myself with all my profits to a messenger bag made from bicycle tires. So without further ado, a picture of the fused recycled plastic and men's shirt sandwich wrappers I will be hawking:

They are school related, right? The Giant's one is the one I am donating...that bag is a vintage booty bag from the 70's. The wrappers stay together with velcro. (I am so excited...cuz I think that baby will bring a chunk of change!)

 Okay, on to the math stuff. So we are finishing up our unit on writing equations of lines with Scatter Plots and the Line of Best Fit. (Really, who cares how many people are going to the swimming pool based on the temperature outside?) I was listening to my FAVORITE podcast, APM's Marketplace Money while walking the dog, and there was the inspiration. An interactive program on their website  starting with 2012, and $35.47 in groceries. Oh man, and they reported how much that food cost in 2002, and 1992, and 1982, based on census data and adjusted for inflation. REAL useful data.
Not enough points really for a fabulous Line of Best Fit, but enough for the students to plot and find one! (And predict what that same bill will be in 2032 when they will be 35 years old or so.) I had the kids make their predictions, then multiply that by four (family of 4) and then by four again for a month. Pretty dang eye opening. Of course if I were going it alone and I had tenure, I would have the kids in the computer lab looking up their own data. But for now I am pleased that I could make it real. Hopefully. How far will $35 go? Groceries through the decades