Economics Standard One - Grades K-3

Sample Activities

Using a price list provided by the teacher, each student might be asked to prepare a budget for a classroom party with a fixed maximum expenditure. After listening to the plans of classmates, the student might be asked to identify what each person valued most on the menu, and what items were "given up" in order to stay with the budget [Microeconomics].

Math Standards Three (Math Reasoning) and Four (Math Connections) would both support this activity.

Students could be asked to list as many strategies as possible that families might use to acquire food (work for money and buy at the supermarket; garden; fish and hunt, etc.), and then identify which of these strategies would be more likely to be pursued in rural, urban, or suburban areas [Microeconomics].

This activity connects with Geography Standard Three.

Students could make a list of all the things they would like to buy within the next month, and research how much each item would cost. Then each student would be given a fixed amount of "money" and be told to purchase as many of the items on the list as possible. Next, students would be given twice the original amount and then half the original amount to make similar lists. From the three resulting lists, students would assign priorities to each item on the list (cost/benefit analysis) [Microeconomics].

For a concurrent geography activity, students might also identify on a map all the places in their community or region that they find these resources.

After reading Something Special About Me by Verna Williams, students could analyze the different alternative uses Rosa had for her birthday money, and explain why Rosa had to make a choice. Students would state whether Rosa made a good or bad choice, and support these answers. Students might also keep a diary of choices they have faced for one week. For each dilemma, they could state why they had to make a choice and their decision. At the end of the week, each student would reexamine his or her decisions, and use cost-benefit analysis to determine if the decisions were good ones [Microeconomics].

to Economics Standard One.