Economis Mini-Lessons: Grades 1-4

Mandatory Lessons: Grades 1-2

• Choices & Opportunity Costs Lesson Grades 1-4
  This foundational lesson introduces the critical concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost, then gets kids engaged in making choices through a game called School Trip Trek. (You will need to print out the various component pieces of the game PRIOR to meeting with your students. You will likely want to make a few versions of the game if you have more than five students in your class.) The game helps kids begin to understand the basics of saving and spending. This lesson does not require computers/Internet.


• Scarcity Lesson Grades 1-2
  This lesson centers around a poem read interactively with students (or just read aloud to them) and will be good for auditory learners. The poem, about a girl named Scarcity, reinforces the concept of scarcity introduced in the first lesson and helps young students grasp the basics of trade-offs. This lesson does not require student computers or Internet access. The instructor may want to project the poem on a screen or the wall by using an overhead projector or LCD projector.


• All About Banking
  Drawing heavily from Sovereign Bank’s site, kidsbank.com, this lesson introduces students to savings accounts and interest rates. They will learn some bank-related vocabulary such as “deposit” and “withdrawal.” It is useful to teach this lesson after the students have been paid some initial paychecks through Economis. Following the lesson, students should be encouraged to log in to their Economis accounts and identify the deposit(s) made.


• Savings and Interest Lesson Grades 1-4
  This lesson will help motivate students to save by educating them on the concepts of simple and compound interest. It is useful to combine this lesson with some hands-on time for the students in their Economis accounts, where they may desire to transfer funds from their checking to their savings accounts in order to take advantage of the interest paid on their savings deposits.


• Scarcity Lesson (Powell Center) Grades 2-5
  This lesson is very hands-on and will be good for kinesthetic learners. Although marked as grades 2-5 it will be fine for 1st – 2nd graders. The lesson gets kids involved in small groups, each representing different countries with different levels of resources. It reinforces the idea of scarcity and sets up the youth for the lesson on Trade.

Mandatory Lessons: Grades 3-4

• Choices & Opportunity Costs Lesson Grades 1-4
This foundational lesson introduces the critical concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost, then gets kids engaged in making choices through a game called School Trip Trek. (You will need to print out the various component pieces of the game PRIOR to meeting with your students. You will likely want to make a few versions of the game if you have more than five students in your class.) The game helps kids begin to understand the basics of saving and spending. This lesson does not require computers/Internet.


• All About Banking
  Drawing heavily from Sovereign Bank’s site, kidsbank.com, this lesson introduces students to savings accounts and interest rates. They will learn some bank-related vocabulary such as “deposit” and “withdrawal.” It is useful to teach this lesson after the students have been paid some initial paychecks through Economis. Following the lesson, students should be encouraged to log in to their Economis accounts and identify the deposit(s) made.


• Savings and Interest Lesson Grades 1-4
  This lesson will help motivate students to save by educating them on the concepts of simple and compound interest. It is useful to combine this lesson with some hands-on time for the students in their Economis accounts, where they may desire to transfer funds from their checking to their savings accounts in order to take advantage of the interest paid on their savings deposits.


• Trade Lesson Grades 2-5
This lesson does not require student computers or Internet access. This lesson is very hands-on and will be good for kinesthetic learners. (IMPORTANT NOTE- you do not need to do the Scarcity Lesson (Powell Center) Grades 2-5 with your students before you do this Trade Lesson. However, you as a teacher will need to read through that Scarcity Lesson as a background to teaching the Trade Lesson.)


• Profit Lesson
This lesson introduces some basic business concepts such as production costs and profit. The lesson also includes a “mental math” activity for the students. This lesson can be done with or without computers/Internet.


• Comparison Shopping Lesson grades 3-5   This hands-on lesson teaches kids how to find the best deal when shopping by determining the cost-per-unit and considering other factors such as the quality and quantity of the items. It interactively employs the concepts of choice, consumer economics, incentives, and price.

Optional Lessons

For kids in grades 1-2, we highly recommend that you do the following optional lessons. (Note that they will work well any time after you have taught the first two mandatory lessons listed above and they do not require computers or Internet access.)

• Little Nino's Pizzeria  
  The key concepts in this lesson are entrepreneurship and the relationship between consumers and producers. It centers on a story of a young entrepreneur and his father who make decisions about starting and developing a pizzeria restaurant. The story contains identifiable examples of consumers and producers, and the lesson includes fun activities to emphasize those concepts. This lesson does not require computers or Internet.
  
  
• Human and Capital Resources Lesson Grades 1-4  
  This lesson is based on the true story of a young Ugandan girl and her family who are economically empowered when they receive a goat from Heifer International. With philanthropy as a central theme, this lesson also teaches the concepts of human and natural resources, income, and how the quantity and quality of resources affects standards of living. It also offers a link to videos about Heifer International that make the idea of philanthropy “come alive.” (Instructors will need a computer, Internet access, and an LCD projector to show the streaming videos.)
  
• A Chair for My Mother   This lesson is based on a story about a girl who sacrificially saves money to buy her mother a comfortable chair after their possessions are destroyed in a fire. It teaches the economic concepts of delayed gratification, income, opportunity cost, and marginal thinking, while also reinforcing the character-developing value of giving. This lesson does not require computers or Internet.
  
  
• Trade Lesson Grades 2-5

This lesson does not require student computers or Internet access. This lesson is very hands-on and will be good for kinesthetic learners. (IMPORTANT NOTE- you do not need to do the Scarcity Lesson (Powell Center) Grades 2-5 with your students before you do this Trade Lesson. However, you as a teacher will need to read through that Scarcity Lesson as a background to teaching the Trade Lesson.)

For kids in grades 3-4, we highly recommend you do:


• Scarcity and Opportunity Costs Grades 3-4
  In this lesson students learn the concepts of scarcity, trade-offs and opportunity costs by reading a story about Kenisha, a young girl who doesn't have enough money to buy everything she wants. Students get to go through Kenisha's decision-making process, sorting out her long- and short-term wants.

• Alexander Who Used to Be Rich  
  This lesson is based on a story about a boy who cannot buy the walkie-talkie he wants because he fails to save and makes a lot of poor - and humorous - decisions about how to spend his money. The story sets the stage for a follow-up discussion about opportunity cost, saving, and spending. The lesson ends with some math activities based on the story.
  
  
• Human and Capital Resources Lesson Grades 1-4  
  This lesson is based on the true story of a young Ugandan girl and her family who are economically empowered when they receive a goat from Heifer International. With philanthropy as a central theme, this lesson also teaches the concepts of human and natural resources, income, and how the quantity and quality of resources affects standards of living. It also offers a link to videos about Heifer International that make the idea of philanthropy “come alive.” (Instructors will need a computer, Internet access, and an LCD projector to show the streaming videos.)