Jeannette Hand

Social Studies Methods

May 9, 2002

Final Exam

Jeannette Hand

Social Studies:

NEEDS & WANTS

First Grade

Rationale:

This unit is to introduce interdependence to first graders. People have needs and wants and these are goods and services provided by other people in our communities. These first graders will understand how different jobs depend on each other for good and services to be provided for the community. It is important for our children to understand how people in a community work together to provide things for our everyday lives. This unit covers #4 Economics standard under Social Studies in the New York State education standards. As first graders we will cover the understanding of major economic concepts, the principles of economic decision-making and the interdependence of economies.

Overview:

The unit would take place towards the end of first grade or beginning of second grade. This unit will take approximately 2-3 weeks allowing 2 days per lesson. The unit would begin by introducing what needs and wants are in lesson 1. A trade book will be read together as a class and an activity where the students will learn how to identify needs and wants will start off the unit. Lesson 2 will include another read-aloud introducing children to learn how to choose between needs and wants. They will use magazine pictures to show the class what they need and want. The next lesson (#3) will help students understand about natural resources and how we need to conserve them for others use. Lesson 4 will help students understand that people who work at different jobs provide needs and wants. This lesson will consist of the students surveying their parents and other community members about their jobs. The students will find out whether they provide a good or service. In lesson 5 we will then take the survey’s jobs and others in the community and make a web. This web will show students how different jobs are related to each other. (Example: a school bus driver needs a mechanic to fix the bus.) As a class we will make this web and identify which jobs provide a good and which ones provide a service. Lesson 6 takes a different look at interdependence. The students will learn that jobs need tools. A fun activity will let students identify which tools help each job to be completed correctly. The unit will be completed by the students taking a written assessment. The test assesses all areas in different forms.

NEW YORK STATE LEARNING STANDARDS

Social Studies Standard

4-Economics

1. The study of economics requires an understanding of major economic concepts and systems, the principles of economic decision making, and the interdependence of economies and economic systems throughout the world.

Ø know some ways individuals and groups attempt to satisfy their basic needs and wants by utilizing scarce resources

Ø explain how people’s wants exceed their limited resources and tat this condition defines scarcity

Ø know that scarcity requires individuals to make choices and that these choices involve costs

Ø understand how societies organize their economies to answer three fundamental economic questions: What goods and services shall be produced and in what quantities? How shall goods and services be produced? For whom shall goods and services be produced?

Mathematics, Science, and Technology

3-Mathematics

3. Students use mathematical operations and relationships among them to understand mathematics.

Ø add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers.

Ø know single digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts.

English Language Arts

1- Language for Information and Understanding

As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas, discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

4- Language for Social Interaction

Students will use oral and written language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

Essential Questions

Unit Essential Questions:

Ø What are needs and wants?

Ø In what ways do we depend on other people in our community?

Guiding Questions:

Ø Lesson 1~ What do you need to survive? What would you like to survive?

Ø Lesson 2~ Can you show me what you need and what you want?

Ø Lesson 3~ Do you throw a lot of things out? Are you wasteful?

Ø Lesson 4~ How do people in our community help each other?

Ø Lesson 5~ Does a person’s job depend on another’s?

Ø Lesson 6~ What do people use to do their jobs correctly?

Ø Final Assessment: Written Test

Lesson1: Sheep, Have You Any Wool?

GQ: What do you need to survive? What would you like to survive?

Objective:

The Learner Will Demonstrate Comprehension of Needs & Wants by giving examples and successfully completing the handout.

Materials: Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw, worksheet (Needs & Wants #1)

Procedure:

Ø Ask students to listen to the story and try to figure out what the sheep’s problem was.

Ø Read Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw

Ø Have students identify the problem (the sheep didn’t have enough money to buy the things they wanted to buy)

Ø How did the sheep solve the problem? (The sheep traded their wool for the things they wanted)

Ø Did the sheep buy needs or wants?

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Ø Children when we go to the store, what do we buy? (Food, clothes, toys, etc.)

Ø Do we really need these things? (Yes) Ask the students further if all these things are really needed to live or if they are just things that we’d like to have?

Ø Explain the difference between a NEED and a WANT and show examples.

o NEED-something people buy or consume to live a healthy life

o WANT- something we don’t really have to have to live, it’s a pleasure, something that is nice to have

Ø Ask students to now name a few things that are needs (water, food, car, house, clothes); Chart the answers on the board.

Ø Ask the students to name things that are wants (toys, vacations, bike, lots of clothes, etc.); Chart the answers on the board.

Closure: We now know the difference between needs & wants. To live we need certain things, but we also would love to have other things. If we have enough money, then we are able to buy those other things, but the needs should come first.

Ø Tell me one thing that is a need.

Ø Tell me one thing that is a want.

Assessment:

Students will be given a simple worksheet (Needs & Wants #1) to identify the needs and wants. The teacher is to read the scenario and directions to the class. As a class everyone will discuss the answers after papers are collected.

Lesson 2: What Do We Really Need?

GQ: Can you show me what you need and what you want?

Objective: The Learner Will Demonstrate Application of Needs & Wants by developing a plan for spending a monthly allowance of 10 items.

Materials: The Berenstain Bears’ Dollars and Sense by Stan & Jan Berenstain, tokens (Needs & Wants #2), list of materials/items for classroom (Needs & Wants #3), sales ad for monthly allowance

Procedure:

Pre-Assessment

Ø Ask the students if they get an allowance from their parents and what they buy with the allowance.

Ø Write all the items the class buys on the board and as a class label which ones are needs and which ones are wants.

Ø Discuss again the difference between a need and a want.

o NEED-something people buy or consume to live a healthy life

o WANT- something we don’t really have to have to live, it’s a pleasure, something that is nice to have

Ø Read The Berenstain Bears’ Dollars and Sense by Stan & Jan Berenstain.

Ø Discuss with students and ask them what the bears should have done differently with their money. (Saved, bought a big item)

Ø Ask Questions:

o Have you ever had to make a choice like that?

o Do you spend your money wisely, on something you really needed?

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Ø As a class let’s pretend we have 10 red tokens, 5 blue tokens and 20 orange tokens to spend on some supplies. We need to figure out what we really need for our classroom. Then if we have extra we can buy what we want.

o Red - $10/token

o Blue - $5/token

o Orange - $1/token

Ø Now together decide with a list (Needs & Wants #3) provided what is needed for the classroom. Write the list on board and put the token amount next to it. Have real tokens (Needs & Wants #2), so as the class “buys” an item the correct amount can be taken away.

Ø As the tokens are taken away, have the students monitor to see how much more they can spend. The students may have to adjust what they are buying to make sure everything is covered with the amount of tokens given.

Closure: Figuring out what is necessary to buy is hard. We all had to work together to pick the items. As a class we decided what we needed and what we wanted.

Ø What were some of the choices we had to make?

Ø How can we remember to buy the things we need first?

Assessment:

Constructive Response: The teacher has to read and explain directions to the students. The students are to look through sales ads to find 10 items. They have to pick items they know they would need if they lost all of their things/possessions. Then if they didn’t pick a total of 10 they could pick some things they want. The students are to write down on the shopping list (Needs & Wants # $4) the things they plan on buying. They are to use only 3 ads and write the name of the ad on the handout and then mark if it is a need or a want.

Lesson 3: Choices about Natural Resources

GQ: Do you throw a lot of things out? Are you wasteful?

Objective: The Learner Will Demonstrate Application of saving materials by solving the problem that the people in Share-Gimme Town have.

Materials: chart paper, construction/drawing paper

Procedure:

Ø Start by tying needs & wants and goods & services together.

Ø Questions and discussion for Review (pre-assessment):

o What is a need? a want? (name some examples)

o Where do we get these things?

o When we go to a store what choices do we have to make?

Ø Discussion for Lesson 3:

o Are these choices hard to make? How do we make them easier? (others help us, we ask for help)

o What is one thing that we can’t live without? (water)

o Where do we get water from? (Earth)

o What else do we get from the Earth? (natural resources: metals, fuels, trees, food)

o These things we get from the Earth are called Natural Resources.

o Do you think there is enough water for everyone? (yes)

o Yes, there is a lot of water, but we must be careful because it may run out. Just like some of the other natural resources we use like trees for paper, and fuel to run cars.

o If we use a lot of these resources then there won’t be enough for the people who are born after us.

o Can we think of some ways to not use so much of these natural resources?

§ Eat all our food

§ Turn off the water

§ Turn off the lights

§ Ride a bike

§ Carpool with others

§ Shut the door

§ Reuse paper and plastic

§ Recycle materials

Ø Let’s make a list of things we can do in our classroom to help save natural resources. Make a chart to display in the classroom.

Ø As a class let’s try to help save our natural resources by following the chart we made.

Ø After the chart is done, have each student draw a picture of how he/she could help in saving natural resources. Display these pictures by the chart of how to save.

Closure: Just like we have to make choices about if we really need that toy or food or if we just want it, we have to make choices about what we use. We have to be careful not to waste anything, so others can use things too.

Ø Tell me one way we can save our resources?

Ø What is one way we are wasting our resources?

Assessment:

Teacher is to read the following story. The students are to answer the following questions on a piece of paper.

Ø The happy land of Share had laws about when to use water in the summer. The people were only allowed to water on Mondays and Fridays. New people were put in charge of Share and changed its name to Gimme. They liked to water the grass everyday of the week. They removed all the laws about using water. In winter and spring, it did not rain that much.

Ø What do you think happened when summer came?

o Was there enough water? (no)

o Who suffered? (everyone) Why? (Farmers couldn’t grow the crops, so people went hungry.)

o What should have the people in Gimme done? (obeyed the first laws, not use a lot of water, etc.)