Council for Economic Education
Teaching Economics Using Children's Literature
Introduce young learners to the subject of economics using their favorite stories and books. Including 24 separate lessons, this guide covers economic principles such as trade, scarcity, consumer goods and services, renewable and...
Curated OER
How to Achieve Your Financial Goals
Young scholars explore economics by creating a budget. In this financial goal setting lesson, students investigate their use of time by completing a worksheet. Young scholars identify financial goals they would like to achieve in the...
Federal Reserve Bank
The Pickle Patch Bathtub
What do your pupils want to save up their money for? Based around the book The Pickle Patch Bathtub, this lesson covers opportunity cost, saving, and spending. Learners participate in a discussion and practice making their own...
Federal Reserve Bank
Something Special For Me
People often save money, but what are the benefits and drawbacks of that action? Youngsters learn about saving, savings, and opportunity cost through the lens of a short book, called Something Special for Me.
Council for Economic Education
Great Civilizations Develop around Rivers
If you lived in prehistoric times, what kinds of choices could your family make to increase their chance of survival? By making similar decisions in a simulation game, participants discover how specialization creates both opportunity and...
Curated OER
Something from Nothing
Learners identify opportunity costs. In this resources instructional activity students are read the story Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman. Learners list the things Grandpa makes Joseph. Students state why people make choices.
Curated OER
Uncle Jed's Barbershop
Fourth graders examine productive resources. In this economics lesson, 4th graders read a book about a man who saves money to buy his own barbershop. After reading, students get into groups to play a game to learn about savings.
Curated OER
Poverty and Natural Disasters: Exploring the Connections
Students explore the connections between natural disasters and poverty. In this economic lesson students examine worksheets and activities for each level.
Curated OER
Life is Starting to Change
Students investigate the tough economic times by discussing supply and demand. In this economics lesson plan, students read a news article and identify specific examples of the oil crisis that has touched their lives....
Curated OER
Economics: People as Producers and Consumers
Students examine the dual roles of producers and consumers in people by creating fictional stories that include examples of both. Their stories include descriptions of the tools and skills needed for the jobs of their characters and...
Council for Economic Education
The Role of Government: The Federal Government and Fiscal Policy
Give learners a crash course in balancing the books on the United States federal government level with an economics and government resource. Class members engage in a warm-up discussion and brainstorming session before answering...
Curated OER
Kooky Kooking
There are lots of learning opportunities built into a cooking lesson plan. Here is one that has kids dictate their own versions of real recipes. The emphasis is on having fun with this, so some of the recipes may look a bit strange!...
Federal Reserve Bank
Glo Goes Shopping
Making decisions can be very difficult. Show your class one way to evaluate choices with this lesson plan, which is inspired by the book Glo Goes Shopping. Learners practicing using a decision-making grid with the content of the story...
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
What Is A Bank?
You're never too young to learn about banking and personal finance. Use a set of seven banking lessons to teach middle schoolers about checking and savings accounts, interest rates, loans and credit cards, and safety deposit boxes.
Curated OER
Heading West
Students study the concept of the westward expansion. In this exploration of the western U.S. lesson, students participate in different activities that explain economic hardships, jobs, and land opportunities. Students describe...
Curated OER
Literary Newspaper: Candide
Prejudice? Religious intolerance? Political sedition? Class distinction? Plight of women? Voltaire satire, anyone? A literary newspaper offers an opportunity for readers of Candide to make text-to-self and text-to-world connections as...
Council for Economic Education
Christopher Columbus, Entrepreneur? Queen Isabella, Venture Capitalist?
What did it take to embark on a journey to unknown lands? Perhaps ambition, but also money! Christopher Columbus had to approach more than one European monarch for financing before he could sail the ocean blue. A read-along play and...
Curated OER
Time, Talent, Treasure and Economics
Students work cooperatively to create a quilt. They choose a pattern and determine the specific skills and steps needed to produce that quilt. Labor is divided equally between group members and a quilt is created assembly line style....
Japan Society
The Bubble Economy and the Lost Decade
Explore Japanese society and national identity. Class members share ideas about the Japanese economy and then investigate a series of resources, including an article, a film, a lecture, and a poem, to learn about Japan's Bubble Economy...
Curated OER
A Multi-Media Approach to Teaching The Grapes of Wrath
Integrate history, math, and art into a study of The Grapes of Wrath with a series of activities that ask learners to investigate the social, political, economic, and environmental factors at play during the 1930s. Designed to be used...
Curated OER
The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Louis Heilbroner
CliffsNotes provides a list of study questions to help your high schoolers grapple with The Worldly Philosophers. Some of them are simple and straight forward, while others offer an opportunity to dig in deeper! Consider printing this...
Dream of a Nation
Solution Debate
Class members choose a current social, political, environmental, or economic problem presented in Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America, research this problem and a variety of suggested solutions, before...
Dream of a Nation
Congressional Debate
Should junk food be banned in schools? Should the US open its borders to all immigrants? Should the US impose term limits for the House of Representatives and for the Senate? Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas...
Curated OER
Life as a Refugee
Lesson 1 from a Refugees and Human Rights unit is based on the UNHCR video “Working with Refugees.” Pupils gain an understanding of the role the United Nations plays in protecting and assisting refugees worldwide and have an opportunity...