Overview
Teacher: Mrs. Rebecca Muller Subjects/Grade Level: Second Grade Social Studies
Duration: 3- 4 weeks
Project Idea:
Our young students of today don’t see cash very often. They see their parents paying with a card (debit or credit). They don’t understand this abstract concept. How can you pay for McDonalds with a card? Where is the money? In this project, students will be learning about the importance of understanding personal financial literacy and how it affects their spending on wants and needs. They will also understand what saving means and how their personal financial literacy knowledge can affect their long and short term purchases. After knowledge is discovered by students, they will create a PSA with video/posters/brochures to help other students as well as their parents and community, learn about the importance of PFL. We will present our PSA to important members in our community, banks, Colorado Department of Commerce, and the Rotary Club of Thornton to help us get more people educated on this topic.
Driving Question: Is saving money important for my future?
Sub-Questions:
Entry Event
To know what Economics is about, you have to understand scarcity. Scarcity means wanting more than you can have. Everyone, everywhere has to deal with scarcity every minute of the day, because no one can have everything they want. You can't have all the time you want. You can't have every toy you want. You can't have everything you want without having less of something else you want. All choices have costs. We must make choices because of scarcity, but the cost of making those choices means you give up the chance to get something else. This is called opportunity cost.
Creating the Event can be motivating for engagement of activity.
As the students come into the classroom from recess hot and sweaty, I will have them choose between two suckers and a piece of gum. (I won't allow them to get a drink of water, yet.) Then I will ask them to trade their sweets for a drink of water at the fountain or their water bottle. They will have to choose. Then I will begin the story of Scarcity. We will have a piece of cake at the end of the lesson as we relate the saying "You can't have your cake and eat it too."
STUDENTS WILL
Duration: 3- 4 weeks
Project Idea:
Our young students of today don’t see cash very often. They see their parents paying with a card (debit or credit). They don’t understand this abstract concept. How can you pay for McDonalds with a card? Where is the money? In this project, students will be learning about the importance of understanding personal financial literacy and how it affects their spending on wants and needs. They will also understand what saving means and how their personal financial literacy knowledge can affect their long and short term purchases. After knowledge is discovered by students, they will create a PSA with video/posters/brochures to help other students as well as their parents and community, learn about the importance of PFL. We will present our PSA to important members in our community, banks, Colorado Department of Commerce, and the Rotary Club of Thornton to help us get more people educated on this topic.
Driving Question: Is saving money important for my future?
Sub-Questions:
- How can understanding money impact our decision making today?
- What events and ideas from the past have shaped the use of money today?
- How do you differentiate between a long-term and a short-term goal?
- What is scarcity?
- How does scarcity affect purchasing decisions?
- What goods and services do you use?
- Can you identify circumstances of money being exchanged for goods or services?
- How can you be a good shopper?
- Define production?
- Can you compare unit and assembly-line production methods?
- Why are different strategies used to produce different types of products?
- Can you recognize how money flows through a community's economy?
- What are choices?
- Can you use a decision-making model that you learned about?
- Will you recognize the need to make informed decisions?
- When is it important to take personal responsibility for financial decisions?
- Can we analyze how goods and services are produced and priced?
- When there is a scarcity of resources, what is its impact on cost of goods and services?
- Can you identify possible solutions when there are limited resources and unlimited demands?
- How are resources used in various communities?
- What are some ways to find out about the goods and services used in other communities?
Entry Event
To know what Economics is about, you have to understand scarcity. Scarcity means wanting more than you can have. Everyone, everywhere has to deal with scarcity every minute of the day, because no one can have everything they want. You can't have all the time you want. You can't have every toy you want. You can't have everything you want without having less of something else you want. All choices have costs. We must make choices because of scarcity, but the cost of making those choices means you give up the chance to get something else. This is called opportunity cost.
Creating the Event can be motivating for engagement of activity.
As the students come into the classroom from recess hot and sweaty, I will have them choose between two suckers and a piece of gum. (I won't allow them to get a drink of water, yet.) Then I will ask them to trade their sweets for a drink of water at the fountain or their water bottle. They will have to choose. Then I will begin the story of Scarcity. We will have a piece of cake at the end of the lesson as we relate the saying "You can't have your cake and eat it too."
STUDENTS WILL
- Explain why they cannot have everything they want because of scarcity.
- Describe why scarcity is characterized by “this OR that” and not “this AND that”.
- Define opportunity cost.
- Explain how all choices have costs.
In the story poem, Scarcity does not understand that the world is “this OR that,” not “this AND that”. In other words, when you make a choice, you have to give up something else, which is the cost of the choice. Scarcity is limited to one toy as a gift from Mother for her birthday. Then, Scarcity is limited to one toy as a gift from Mother for Christmas. But Scarcity does not believe it is fair, or right, to have to choose. She does not want to pay the cost of having to give something up when she makes a choice. She wants every toy that she can see.
Click on the word to look at the definition of scarcity and opportunity cost.
Discussion questions:
1.Scarcity does not understand the difference between “this AND that” and “this OR that”. What is the difference?
[Discuss with the students the meaning of the words “AND” and “OR”. Discuss why Scarcity cannot have everything in life that she wants. For example, Scarcity cannot have every toy that she wants, every piece of candy that she wants or every pet that she wants, and so on.]
2.Why does Scarcity want every toy on the magic tree?
[Because she does not understand scarcity; that she cannot have it all. Discuss with the students why we cannot have everything thing we want because of limitations, such as time and money.]
3. There are 10 gifts on a tree. Select two gifts. Mother says it's OK to get one of the two gifts, but not both. You must choose between two gifts. What is the opportunity cost of this choice?
[The answer varies. It may be the eight gifts on the tree if a student wants all the toys, plus other costs. The student also has to give up their other toy of choice. Other costs might include the following: playing with a friend, riding a bike, eating candy, etc. See the discussion on opportunity and cost below.]
Conclusion
Because of scarcity, we all have to make choices. No one, not even you, can have everything they want. Every time you make a choice, you have to give up something.
Credit to: Econedlink - Lesson Toys For Me
Click on the word to look at the definition of scarcity and opportunity cost.
Discussion questions:
1.Scarcity does not understand the difference between “this AND that” and “this OR that”. What is the difference?
[Discuss with the students the meaning of the words “AND” and “OR”. Discuss why Scarcity cannot have everything in life that she wants. For example, Scarcity cannot have every toy that she wants, every piece of candy that she wants or every pet that she wants, and so on.]
2.Why does Scarcity want every toy on the magic tree?
[Because she does not understand scarcity; that she cannot have it all. Discuss with the students why we cannot have everything thing we want because of limitations, such as time and money.]
3. There are 10 gifts on a tree. Select two gifts. Mother says it's OK to get one of the two gifts, but not both. You must choose between two gifts. What is the opportunity cost of this choice?
[The answer varies. It may be the eight gifts on the tree if a student wants all the toys, plus other costs. The student also has to give up their other toy of choice. Other costs might include the following: playing with a friend, riding a bike, eating candy, etc. See the discussion on opportunity and cost below.]
Conclusion
Because of scarcity, we all have to make choices. No one, not even you, can have everything they want. Every time you make a choice, you have to give up something.
Credit to: Econedlink - Lesson Toys For Me