This week in class we discussed 2 economic principles...opportunity costs and economic decision-making. I began by showing students a sample decision tree that I made about my plans for last year's spring break.
With a week out of school, I faced a tough choice. Should I visit my sister in Savannah or go sightseeing in Atlanta? With a scarcity of time and money, I could not do both, so I had to make a choice. My opportunity cost would be the choice I would give up in order to get the choice I wanted.
To further illustrate these ideas, we read Helga's Dowry by Tommy dePaola. One of my favorite childhood stories, this book could be used to teach a number of economic concepts. Of course, my students had absolutely no idea what a dowry was, so we had to begin by defining that for them. :-)
While reading the book, we used our classroom SMARTboard to help Helga make her decision using a decision tree template...should Helga marry Handsome Lars or the King of the Trolls?
Upon conclusion of our large group lesson, students worked independently to generate their own decision trees. You can see examples here of their awesome responses. Should Amy choose a lollipop or bouncy ball from the classroom treat box? Should Cami choose to use her dollar to buy a Kit Kat or a Hersheys candy bar?
Interested in teaching your students more about economics, entrepreneurship, and advertising? Find much more in my economics resource pack available on both TpT and Teachers Notebook at the addresses below.
Also, just a reminder that this economics unit as well as all of my resources will be on sale through Labor Day in honor of all of the hard-working teachers and home school moms I know!!!! Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!! Shannon :-)
Hello.....With candy bars the club or organization makes money (about 50% of money collected). Money is collected up front and then the family eats the candy bars. Sure the chocolate is higher quality than found in the store, but they are not a great deal, so the end result is they family eats 10 lbs of over-priced chocolate, if a sale is made to an outsider, they are not getting a good deal they are donating with the appearance of a product exchanging hands.Read more-buy Candy box in Florida
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