Santa’s Workshop: Multi-Step Operations & Ratios

🎄Santa’s Workshop: Multi-Step Operations & Ratios is a festive, highly interactive, multi-step math simulation designed specifically for 7th grade. In this engaging holiday-themed lab, students step into the roles of Junior Workshop Managers at the North Pole and help Santa prepare for Christmas by using real-world mathematical reasoning.

This lab unfolds through a rich storyline: Santa is gearing up for holiday production, but before the workshop can start, students must solve essential planning challenges. They will count and categorize gifts for 20 children, calculate total materials required, check inventory levels, estimate restocking costs in North Pole Credits (NPC), and allocate limited ELF Time (ET) to various production tasks. Finally, students launch a real-time workshop simulation to test whether their planning leads to successful gift production.

Teachers can optionally enable randomization, giving every student a unique version of the workshop challenge. Randomization changes the number of gifts each student must produce, which means their material needs, inventory shortages, restocking costs, ELF Time usage, and even their simulation outcomes will all be different. This makes the activity excellent for independent work, prevents copying, and creates opportunities for rich classroom discussion.

⭐ What Students Will Do

• Count the number of each gift needed for 20 children
• Calculate total materials required using proportional reasoning
• Compute total stocking cost of materials using NPC
• Use multi-step reasoning to allocate limited ELF Time (ET)
• Run a production simulation to monitor gift output, material consumption, and time usage
• Analyze whether their planning allowed the workshop to complete production
• Reflect on efficiency, resource management, and real-world decision-making

🎁 Key Math Concepts Covered

• Number operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication)
• Ratios & proportional reasoning
• Multi-step problem solving
• Unit cost calculations
• Resource allocation under constraints
• Data interpretation using tables
• Simulation-based analysis and reasoning

👩‍🏫 Why Teachers Love This Lab

• Highly engaging, with a strong holiday storyline
• Integrates several 7th-grade math domains into one cohesive experience
• Includes a full simulation that makes students’ planning come to life
• Perfect for December classrooms, enrichment days, or end-of-unit applications
• Works well for independent work, group work, or whole-class discussions
• Optional randomization ensures every student gets a unique set of numbers and a unique experience