Market Day Around the World

Bring world geography and real-life math to your classroom with Market Day Around the World! This engaging, cross-curricular unit features global market stalls, cultural products, local currencies, and differentiated story problems that make learning meaningful, hands-on, and fun. Perfect for elementary teachers looking to build global awareness while strengthening key math skills.

Perfect for whole-class exploration, small group rotations, and independent work.

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Market Menus: the name of the market on the front cover, the currency description on the back cover, and the menu items on the inside

Market Introduction: a description of the market’s name and the word for “market” in the country’s language

Market Cards: for use in addition to (or in place of) the folded market menu

Story Problem Worksheets: 12 story problems with increasing difficulty, allowing for individualization. Answer keys are included.

World Map: track your Market Day adventure

Currency Cards: Memory & Matching Game

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Academic Benefits

• Reinforces high-priority math skills* through meaningful, real-world contexts.
• Strengthens reading comprehension as students analyze story problems, menus, and informational text.
• Encourages data analysis, estimation, reasoning, and mathematical modeling.

Cultural & Global Benefits

• Exposes students to foods, crafts, music, and daily life from many world regions.
• Builds geographic fluency with maps, currencies, national symbols, and local languages.
• Cultivates global citizenship by helping students appreciate similarities and differences among cultures.
• Fosters cultural respect and inclusivity through authentic examples and a positive exploration of diversity.

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*Math Skills:

Operations & Algebraic Thinking

• Solving multistep word problems
• Using the four operations
• Analyzing patterns and relationships

Number & Operations in Base Ten

• Using place value understanding to perform calculations
• Rounding, estimating, and comparing numbers

Fractions

• Understanding fractions as numbers
• Adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions
• Solving real-world fraction problems

Measurement & Data

• Telling and calculating elapsed time
• Solving problems involving weight and capacity
• Using data from menus and prices

Numbers & Operations – Decimals

• Working with decimals when prices require them
• Comparing and rounding decimals
• Addition & subtraction of decimal values