Economics Standard Four - Grades 4-5

Sample Activities

Students might examine the goods and services produced within the American colonies prior to the Revolutionary War, and then evaluate the various restrictions on trade which were part of the British colonial relationship with the colonies. They could create maps and charts which demonstrated how this policy might benefit individuals and businesses in Great Britain and limit economic choices in the colonies. The maps and charts should also address the question of who benefited most from the policies, who the least [International trade; microeconomics]

While this activity has obvious geographic and history connections, it is also amenable to an examination of the role of government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens under the civics standard.

Students might study the customs and traditions of the Nanticokes, the Leni Lenape, and other North American tribes in the period before European contact in order to determine the way in which attitudes toward land ownership, the use of barter and media of exchange, and divisions of production labor were culturally distinctive and affected relations between these groups and European colonists [Economic systems].

This activity is closely related to History Standard Four and Geography Standard Three.

Students might investigate the lives of farmers in New England, the Middle colonies, tidewater Virginia, and coastal South Carolina at the time of the Constitutional Convention in order to understand the use of slave, indentured, and free labor and how these labor systems might have affected political attitudes of delegates and their constituents [Economic systems].

This activity integrates will with History Standard One.

to Economics Standard Four.