Economics

The big idea

Your child learns about producers and consumers, goods and services, and how money makes trading easier. Scarcity, supply and demand come alive in a family market simulation. After the Quarter 3 review, your child traces how people, regions and countries depend on each other, reads resource, population and climate maps together, and learns how people earn income, what banks do and how to make a simple budget.

Standards in plain words

• D2.Eco.1.3-5 Compares the benefits and costs of choices people make.
• D2.Eco.2.3-5 Identifies rewards and penalties (incentives) that influence the decisions people make.
• D2.Eco.3.3-5 Names the kinds of resources (people's skills, tools and buildings, and natural resources) used to make goods and services.
• D2.Eco.4.3-5 Explains why people and businesses specialize and trade.
• D2.Eco.5.3-5 Explains how money makes trading easier.
• D2.Eco.6.3-5 Explains how learning new skills connects to getting more done and earning more later.
• D2.Eco.7.3-5 Explains how profits influence sellers in a market.
• D2.Eco.9.3-5 Describes the role of banks and other financial institutions in an economy.
• D2.Eco.10.3-5 Explains what interest rates are.
• D2.Eco.14.3-5 Explains how trade makes countries depend on each other more and more.
• D2.Geo.2.3-5 Uses maps, photos and other images to explain how places and regions connect to their land, water and climate.
• D2.Geo.6.3-5 Describes how land, climate and culture affect where people live.

Anchor texts

• Reading About Our World passages: 'Buying, Selling and Trading' (Week 26) and 'Maps That Tell Stories' (Week 29)
• Video hub topics: goods and services, scarcity, interdependence, combining information from several maps, and needs and wants in a budget

Watch across the unit

• Watch for: Thinking a store makes everything it sells, or that a famous brand name means an item was made in the U.S.

  Try: Keep asking, 'And where did the store get it?' and compare the logo with the small 'Made in' tag.

• Watch for: Thinking the biggest states have the most people, or reading a population map as a resource map.

  Try: Read the map title aloud first, and put Alaska and Rhode Island side by side to compare size with dots.

• Watch for: Calling something a need because they really want it, or spending more than the income.

  Try: Ask, 'Could you stay healthy and safe without it?' and write a running total next to each line of the budget.