Our economics unit is short and sweet. It lasts about 2 weeks, we are finishing it up tomorrow with a unit test. [Just in time for spring break!] The topics we cover are wants, needs, goods, services, business, resources, opportunity cost and specialization.
Definitions are a big part of this unit. We really want the students to know what the economics vocabulary means and be able to give examples. So each student made an Economics Term Mat.
We also do a bunch of Smart Board sorting activities to reinforce the concepts.
Opportunity cost can be a hard topic to grasp. We wanted to find a way to make it a little bit easier. Grab an opportunity cost freebie here! These cards are a fun way for students to practice.
Those things are all fine and dandy but by far our FAVORITE lesson for this unit is on specialization. We start by visiting the Hershey's website. Here students can see how chocolate is made and learn a little bit about how the company started. For our hands on portion we recreate the Hershey Kiss assembly line.
We divide our kiddos into groups of three. We give each person a job, that they have to "specialize" in. The first person in the group's job is to cut the tin foil to size.
The second job is to put the [unwrapped] Kiss in the middle of the piece of foil.
Finally, the third job is to wrap it.
Once we discuss what we learned, we enjoy this little clip [and our chocolate]...
Of course the majority of the students have never heard of I Love Lucy, but they still enjoy the humor of it!
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