Excel Lesson Plan
Birthday Party Budget

Assignment: Students Plan a Party and Stick to the Budget. Students plan a birthday party for a friend. Students have exactly $100.00 dollars to spend. Students use a list of party supplies to choose from. Students make sure that there are enough decorations, food, drinks, desserts, party favors, plates, cups, and napkins for everyone. There will 10 people at the party inluding yourself.

Students create a budget using a spreadsheet showing how much they have to spend (allowance), the (total expenses), and (money left over).

Download: excel-birthday-party-budget-finished-example.xlsx

Birthday Party Budget Finished Example

Assignment Requirements:

1. Students create a birthday party budget using a spreadsheet to show how much they have to spend ($100.00), the total costs of the items they buy, and how much they are over or under the budget amount. Students create a chart of the costs ONLY. Hint: select only the items in column A and the costs in column D to create the chart.
2. Students use formulas to calculate each item's cost (quantity x price each), the total expense costs (use autosum Σ), and the (over)/under budget amount (allowance - total cost).
3. Students may format their spreadsheet with a title, different fonts, colors, sizes for improved clarity and appearance. Students stick to the budget. Students research online stores (amazon, walmart, other) to find their party items and prices.

Hints on Using the Formulas

Discuss the need for formulas in this spreadsheet. We need to know the costs of all the items, we need to know how much we spent, and we need to know if we are over or under the budget and by how much. In the finished example spreadsheet, the 3 formulas are:

1. Pizza for 15 Cost: =B5*C5 This is a multiplication formula.
2. Total Cost: =SUM(D5:D14) This is an addition formula.
3. Over/Under amount: =B2-B16 This is a subtraction formula

Download: excel-birthday-party-budget-starter-template.xlsx

Birthday Party Food Budget - Starter Template

Students can use this excel template to guide their budgeting. Students will need to apply necessary formatting, enter all the party item data, quantities, prices for each, costs, item descriptions, and all formulas..

Students Learn and Practice
the Following Basic Spreadsheet Skills:

• Creating and formatting a spreadsheet title using "merge and center"
• Entering data in columns and rows
• Using a simple multiplication formula to multiply quantities X price.
• Using the simple formula "Autosum" to automatically calculate total expenses
• Using a subtraction formula to calculate money left over (allowance - total expenses)
• Formatting numbers as currency and adding $ signs.
• Creating a chart using the expense data entered.
• Using different colors for chart segments to improve visual presentation
• Creating, sizing, and positioning the chart to fit on a single page with the data
• Searching, inserting, sizing, and positioning clipart or pictures
• Using print preview and printing

Download: rubric-for-spreadsheet-with-chart.pdf

Excel Spreadsheet Rubric for Grading Assignments