Students will explore the difference between wants and needs as they decide what they will be taking to Grandma's house. Students will recognize that people have basic needs (food, shelter, and clothing) and wants (toys, games, treats). The assessment plan attachments includes wants and needs chart and picture cards.

Students learn how their family meets the needs of the members of that family.

In this lesson, students learn about wants, choice, and scarcity. They listen to the story Betty Bunny Wants Everything and identify all the wants that Betty Bunny has at the toy store. Students learn that because of scarcity, they must make choices. They practice making choices by selecting a treat they want, a toy for one of the book characters, and finally a school item. They sing a song about choices and scarcity.

These questions can be used to discuss the following economic concepts in the book Betty Bunny Wants Everything: choice, scarcity, and wants.

In this lesson, students will identify a variety of jobs that people perform and determine for each job whether it provides a service or good and explain the importance of having businesses that provide services and goods in their community.

If you’ve taken time to glance at the Kindergarten “Myself and Others” book, or its sequel First Grade “Families and Schools”, you’ll know that the authors of those books envisioned them being “big books” which were meant to be experienced with the teacher projecting the materials on a big screen. This book begins the transition from “big book” to an individualized tool. It doesn’t mean that the book is meant to be read without teacher interaction, but this resource was designed to be in the hands of students in conjunction with daily classroom instruction.

Students identify items presented to them as needs and wants and create a collage of images. The lesson is located on pages 3-6 of the pdf.

In this lesson, students learn to identify the difference between things they want and items they need for survival.

In this lesson, students learn what goods and services are. They listen to the story Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! They listen to the story again and identify letters and goods and services from the book that begin with those letters. They learn a song about goods and services, identify goods and services they use, and identify the first letter of their first or last names and draw a good or a service that starts with that letter. The extension activities provide opportunities for role-play and counting.

Students consider the core economic concept of needs and wants. Students categorize common possessions as those they need and those they want. Then, they assess the “embedded energy of those items.

After exploring ways that people use resources from our environment to provide for basic needs and wants, students will generate an inclusive list (using brainstorming and research) of many natural resources that people use to meet their needs and wants.  Students will create a poster to illustrate their generated ideas.  Then students will present their posters to the class or a small group.  The teacher may also ask students to consider the use of one natural resource over another in a given situation.  Students will consider the best natural resource (s) to use in various situations based on wants/needs, sturdiness, usefulness, sustainability, durability, accessibility, availability, cost, etc.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

After learning about wants and needs student can collect cans as a community project. The students will count the cans that they earned and are donating to the food pantry. The students will reflect on the unit and how they felt about helping others.This lesson was developed by Michelle Allen as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy

If your basic needs are not met, what happens? Student will look at life from the perspective of someone that is homeless or hungry.This lesson was developed by Michelle Allen as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Analyze the differences between needs and wants.This lesson was developed by Michelle Allen as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

This lesson helps students recognize the perspective of others, explores the negative aspects of not having shoes, and reviews the concepts of needs and wants. It is also where the shoe collection project is introduced to the class.This lesson was developed by James Agner as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will distinguish between wants and needs and recognize individual differences. Students will also list objects that we either make from trees or that are produced by trees. Then students will locate and identify pictures of products that are tree related in magazines.

In this lesson, studnets learn about saving, spending, decision making and opportunity cost. They learn to use a decision-making grid to make decisions. Mathematics skills include learning about rows and columns in a grid.

This inquiry engages students in expanding their understandings of families in general and the idea that families can be both similar and different. Although much of family life may be shared - language, religion, culture, and traditions - there are important differences across these elements. The compelling question "How can families be the same and different?" offers students opportunities to explore a range of family dimensions - structure, activities, and traditions.

In this lesson, students learn about saving, savings goals, and income. They listen to the book Just Saving My Money by Mercer Mayer, a story about how Little Critter saves his money to buy a skateboard. Students use clues in the book's text and pictures to answer questions. After listening to the story, students play a game where they each have a savings goal, earn income, and save money until that savings goal is met. Students write math sentences to determine whether they have saved enough to reach their goals. Students also set their own savings goals and tell how they could earn income to meet them.

This site provides students, ages 3-5, with information about things they need to know to live financially smart lives. Activities are listed under each milestone they are introduced to such as needing money to buy things, you earn money by working, you may have to wait before you can buy something you want, and there is a difference between things you want and things you need.