How do we make tough choices when spending money?

Financial Advice

Students read the book The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble with Money by Stan and Jan Berenstain, learn about and discuss some common idioms related to money, then draft financial advice for making tough choices with money.

Shopping Lists

Students create personalized shopping lists. In doing so, they are introduced to, or review, key economic concepts: goods, services, wants, and needs. Note that these shopping lists could be used as personalized game boards in the upcoming “Tough Choices” lesson.

Tough Choices! (Part 1 of 2)

Students read Do I Need It? Or Do I Want It? by Jennifer S. Larson. Then, they design Uh-Oh! Cards, a key component to the interactive economics game they will play at the end of the Essential Question. The Uh-Oh! Cards describe realistic scenarios that force a player to prioritize fulfilling a need over a want.

Tough Choices! (Part 2 of 2, Checkpoint Assessment)

Through this Essential Question, students have explored ideas about economic decision-making. This final lesson may be used as a checkpoint assessment of cumulative learning throughout this Essential Question. Here, students play and reflect upon a bingo-like game that models the difficult process of deciding how to spend money and how to prioritize when the unexpected happens.

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Meeting Needs and Wants

Essential Question

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How do we make tough choices when spending money?

Students act as consumers, evaluating goods and services in their community model and playing a game that illustrates how to spend money and respond to unexpected events. Using what they've learned, students create spending advice to share with others.

LESSONS