Economics and Geography Lessons

When I Was Little

MCPS Status of Book as of 4/4/96:
Approved as Library Book for Grades PreK-3

Title: When I Was Little by Toyomi Igus (Just Us Books, Orange, NJ, 1992)

Lesson Developed by Barbara S. Yingling

Literature Annotation: In this story a little boy from the city visits his grandfather in the country, and learns about some of the ways life has changed since his grandfather was a little boy.

Grade Level: 2-3

Duration: 60 minutes

Economic Concepts: Wants and Needs

Geography Themes: Movement, Relationships: Humans and Environment

MSPAP Outcomes and Indicators:

Economic Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers in American society.

Indicator:

• Describe the relationship between economic wants and needs.

Geography Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of geographic concepts and processes as needed to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activities.

Indicators:

• Explain the relationship between the physical setting of a community and its ability to satisfy the wants and needs of its people.
• Describe how transportation and communication networks link communities.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Identify wants and needs and how they were satisfied in Noel's grandfather's time.
• Identify types of transportation in two time eras.
• Research how wants and needs are satisfied today compared to the students' grandparents' era.

Vocabulary: wants, needs, washboard, rotary dial phone, time eras, modern, old fashioned

Materials:

• Book: When I Was Little
• "How Wants and Needs Are Met" transparency
• "Transportation Web", 1 copy for each group of 2-3 students
• Concept Attainment Cards (cut out)

Teacher Background: Economics is the study of how people, individually and in groups (families, businesses, governments, organizations) choose to use scarce productive resources to satisfy their wants.

Lesson Development:

Review/Motivation:

1. To introduce the idea of Modern vs. Old Fashioned, begin with a Concept Attainment "Yes/No" chart on the front board. Cut apart the concept attainment cards on the worksheet and distribute them randomly to students. As the students come to the board, they place their picture in the Yes or No column. If the picture is old fashioned, you say yes and leave the picture there. If they place a modern picture in the Yes column, say no and move the picture to the No column. The students may guess the concept that all the "yes" pictures share (being old-fashioned). Ask what the opposite of old-fashioned is, and introduce the term modern. Review the meanings of Wants and Needs. Help the students create a chart of their wants and needs on the board: healthy food, shelter, clean clothes, a telephone, a car, health care, video games, vacations, movies, a bicycle, a CD player. Help students classify the goods and services correctly as each item is added to the chart.

Activities:

1. Tell the students that you are going to read a book to them about how people met their wants and needs in old-fashioned times and how they meet those same needs today. Show the chart, "How Wants and Needs Are Met", on the overhead projector. Divide the students into groups to listen for information for a specific part of the chart. (Keep the "In My Life" part covered.)

2. Read the story and have students help you complete the chart. (Keep the "In My Life" part covered.)

3. Keep the students in their in small groups; give each group a Transportation Web. Have the groups to complete the web showing modern and old-fashioned transportation methods. Discuss which transportation methods would fit both time eras. Ask what might be included in the future time era.

Conclusion/Closure:
Show the students the "In My Life" part of the "How Wants and Needs Are Met" chart. Have the students independently decide what should go in the cells and then complete the chart as the class, showing how their wants and needs are met.

Thoughtful Application:
Remind students that they have been comparing how people in past and present times have used the available resources to meet their wants and needs. Ask them to think about what the cells of the "How Wants and Needs Are Met" chart might contain in the future. Distribute a piece of poster paper to each child. Direct them to choose one of the categories from the chart to create a poster showing at least two ways that people in the future might use their resources to meet their wants and needs. Instruct the students to write a caption to explain each example on their poster. Allow time for creating the posters. Then have the students share their posters with the class. As the students share, have them explain how the people of the future might use available resources to meet wants and needs.

Extension: Visit a museum, such as the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, or plan a visit to a local nursing home where students can meet people of older generations to learn more about goods, services, wants and needs in the past.

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Last updated on April 4, 1997
Maintained by John L. Day

<jday@umd5.umd.edu>