Introduction to Economics
Essential Questions
Standards of Learning
Social Studies
Objectives
* Wants: things that we would like to have
Materials
Procedures for Learning Activities
Introduction – (5 minutes)
* Relate needs to what animals need in their habitats.
* Teacher writes students’ answers on chart paper titled Needs on one side and Wants on the
other side.
Instructional Strategies – (35 minutes)
* Subtitle: How we work and spend money
(Throughout the unit, students are encouraged to come back to the title page and add
color, drawings, and words that relate to our unit)
Formative Assessment
Differentiation
Technology Integration
- What are needs?
- What are wants?
- What are resources?
Standards of Learning
Social Studies
- 2.7 The student will describe natural resources (water, soil, wood, and coal), human resources (people at work), and capital resources (machines, tools, and buildings).
- 2.5 b) an animal’s habitat includes adequate food, water, shelter or cover, and space;
Objectives
- Students will be able to provide example of needs and wants
- Students will be able to describe needs and wants
* Wants: things that we would like to have
- Students will be able to respond to resources related questions
Materials
- Social Studies notebook
- Pencil
- Chart paper and markers
- Overhead projector
- Video: Brain POP Jr. - Needs and Wants - Link
Procedures for Learning Activities
Introduction – (5 minutes)
- Activating prior knowledge
* Relate needs to what animals need in their habitats.
* Teacher writes students’ answers on chart paper titled Needs on one side and Wants on the
other side.
Instructional Strategies – (35 minutes)
- On Social Studies notebook, have students skip one clean page and on the next page draw a line in the middle. Write needs on the top half and wants on the bottom half. (Teacher models on the overhead projector). Write the definition of needs (things that we need to survive) and wants (things that we would like to have). Independently students will draw and label three needs and three wants.
- When they finish, they will create the title page of our unit on their notebooks.
* Subtitle: How we work and spend money
(Throughout the unit, students are encouraged to come back to the title page and add
color, drawings, and words that relate to our unit)
- Watch Brain POP Jr. – Needs and Wants
- After watching the video, students turn and talk to a partner about something they have learned.
- Say: “Economics is the study of how people use resources. What are resources?”
- Say: “Imagine you are making a sandwich, what would you need to make that sandwich?" Have a discussion about where the ingredients come from (natural resources), who packaged and put the products on the shelves (human resources), and how did original resources become a new product (capital resources).
- On the next page of their notebook, students will write the title Our Resources
- Ask students to share something they have learned or something they wonder about after todays' lesson.
- Tell students: “We will be learning how our economy works, the three types of resources, and how we can get our wants, next time we have Social Studies.”
Formative Assessment
- Initial answers from students about things they need to survive (needs) and things they would like to have (wants).
- Observations during turn and talk.
- Students’ answers about something they have learned.
Differentiation
- Teacher will model what their notebook should look like.
- Have students previously paired up for turn and talk activity (students will be paired so they can better support each other’s thinking)
Technology Integration
- Overhead projector
- Smartboard and computer to show Brainpop Jr. video