Best for
Week 1 numeracy task after students have already discussed scarcity and trade-offs in words.
Mathematics + social studies • Years 9-10 • Unit 10 Week 1
Food Budget Pie Chart
Students estimate and visualise how a household food budget is divided. The maths matters, but so does the conversation underneath it: what gets prioritised, what gets squeezed, and what scarcity means when families are trying to keep everyone fed.
Free data task, premium local-budget adaptation
This page already works. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want local supermarket prices, regional kai examples, or a scaffolded version with fixed data sets built in.
- Insert a fictional class budget instead of a personal estimate.
- Generate simpler percentage bands for students who need more support.
- Save a class-ready Unit 10 numeracy pack in My Kete.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 30-40 minutes.
- Grouping: Individual estimates followed by paired comparison.
- Prep: Decide whether students use home estimates or a fictional whānau scenario.
- Teaching move: Keep asking what the numbers suggest about needs, pressure, and prioritising kai. Connect to manaakitanga — food scarcity affects our capacity to care for guests, whānau, and community.
Resources already provided
- Budget category table
- Pie-chart drawing space
- Interpretation prompts
- Percentage-check reminder
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
If this feels too personal, switch to a fictional household case study. The mathematical reasoning still holds.
Ngā Whāinga Ako / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to represent budget choices using percentages.
- We are learning to interpret what a pie chart shows about needs and priorities.
- We are learning to connect number patterns to the idea of scarcity.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can estimate percentage categories that total 100%.
- I can draw and label a pie chart clearly.
- I can explain what the chart suggests about trade-offs in a food budget.
1. Budget categories
| Category | Examples | Estimated % | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staples / kai matua | Rice, bread, pasta, kūmara, potatoes | ______% | ________________________ |
| Fruit and vegetables | Fresh, frozen, canned produce | ______% | ________________________ |
| Protein | Fish, eggs, meat, beans, tofu | ______% | ________________________ |
| Snacks / extras | Treats, drinks, convenience foods | ______% | ________________________ |
| Other | Baby food, allergies, special items | ______% | ________________________ |
2. Draw your pie chart
Shade or label each sector clearly. Check that your total equals 100% before you explain the chart.
Quick checks
- Did your percentages add to 100%?
- Which category takes the largest share?
- Which category gets squeezed first when money is tight?
- What does this tell you about needs versus wants?
3. Interpret the pattern
What stands out?
What does the chart suggest about scarcity?
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Create and interpret pie charts showing how a household allocates its food budget
- Connect visual data representation to economic concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost
- Compare different household budgets and analyse what the differences reveal about access and choice
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- My pie chart is accurate — percentages add to 100% and segments are proportional
- I can explain what the chart reveals about trade-offs
- My analysis evaluates what the allocation suggests about the household's situation
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Economic Understanding
Level 3–4: investigate how economic concepts explain resource decisions; evaluate trade-offs in economic choices; understand that scarcity is a structural condition affecting communities differently based on access and power.
Mathematics / Numeracy
Level 3–4: apply arithmetic and data representation to real economic contexts; read and interpret charts showing resource allocation; understand that accuracy in resource calculation has real consequences for food security.
Whakaaro Hōhonu · Reflection
What is one insight from this activity that connects to the unit's big question: "What Will We Eat Tomorrow?"
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
In te ao Māori, food allocation has always been a community decision, not just a household one. Manaakitanga required that guests and those in need were fed before the host family — a structural redistribution of resources that prevented extreme inequality within communities. A pie chart of one family's food budget captures individual scarcity; it does not capture the collective systems that historically prevented that scarcity from becoming crisis. As you analyse pie charts, ask: who is not represented in this data? Whose food budget is this measuring?
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
Resources already provided:
- This handout — Week 1 introduction to scarcity concepts
- Quick Reference Card (unit-10-quick-reference-card.html) — scarcity, trade-off, opportunity cost definitions
- Scarcity Vocabulary Sort (unit-10-week1-scarcity-vocabulary-sort.html) — organise key economic terms
- Food Budget Pie Chart (unit-10-week1-food-budget-pie-chart.html) — visualise resource allocation
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to investigate the intersection of kai (food), culture, and climate — exploring how mātauranga Māori approaches to food production, preservation, and distribution offer powerful responses to contemporary food security and climate challenges in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how traditional Māori kai practices (maramataka, kūmara cultivation, rāhui) embody ecological knowledge and food security principles.
- ✅ Students can connect kai culture and climate scarcity to contemporary community action and food sovereignty movements.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide graphic organisers that map traditional kai practices to modern food security concepts at the entry level. Offer extension tasks asking students to research a specific iwi's traditional food system and evaluate its contemporary relevance, or to investigate a local food sovereignty initiative.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach domain vocabulary (food sovereignty, food security, kaitiakitanga, rāhui, maramataka) using visual diagrams and real-world examples. Draw connections to students' own cultural food traditions — these are valid entry points into the unit's themes. Allow oral or visual presentation of learning as alternatives to written tasks.
Inclusion: Kai is a universal human experience — all students have a relationship with food, seasonality, and sharing. Neurodiverse learners benefit from concrete, hands-on engagement with these concepts (e.g., examining a kūmara, mapping seasonal foods). Acknowledge diverse economic circumstances sensitively when discussing food security. Choice in how students demonstrate understanding (written, visual, oral) supports inclusive assessment.
Mātauranga Māori lens: The maramataka — the Māori lunar calendar — is one of Aotearoa's most sophisticated environmental data systems, encoding centuries of ecological observation about planting, harvesting, fishing, and weather patterns. Kūmara cultivation in pre-colonial Aotearoa was a feat of agricultural knowledge adapted to a new climate. Rāhui (temporary resource restrictions) is indigenous resource management — conservation before conservation. Kaitiakitanga frames the relationship between people and kai not as extraction but as reciprocal guardianship. These are not historical curiosities — they are living solutions to contemporary problems.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational understanding of climate change and food systems. No specialist mātauranga Māori knowledge required for entry-level engagement — the unit builds this knowledge progressively.
Curriculum alignment
- Place and Environment — Social Studies: Understand how people's management of resources reflects their values and their view of sustainability — and how mātauranga Māori frameworks provide models for sustainable resource management.
- Ecology — Living World: Understand how human activities and natural factors affect the distribution and abundance of organisms; evaluate the impact of changes on ecosystem health and food systems.