Need It! Want It!

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Resource
Wallet Wellness
Grade(s)
4, 5, 6
Division(s)
Junior

Cross-Curricular Expectations

H&PE

A1. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills, D2. Making Healthy Choices, D3. Making Connections for Healthy Living

Math (Social-Emotional Learning Skills)

A1. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills and the Mathematical Processes: Apply, to the best of their ability, a variety of social-emotional learning skills to support their use of mathematical processes and their learning in connection with the expectations in the other five strands of the mathematics curriculum

Mathematics (Financial Literacy)
  • F1.4 Financial Management (Gr.4): explain the relationship between spending and saving, and describe how spending and saving behaviours may differ from one person to another
  • F1.5 Consumer and Civic Awareness (Gr. 4, Gr. 5):
    • Gr. 4: describe some ways of determining whether something is reasonably priced and therefore a good purchase
    • Gr. 5: calculate unit rates for various goods and services, and identify which rates offer the best value
  • F1.2 Money Concepts (Gr.5): estimate and calculate the cost of transactions involving multiple items priced in dollars and cents, including sales tax, using various strategies
Language
  • Oral and Non-Verbal Communication: apply listening, speaking, and non-verbal communication skills and strategies to understand and communicate meaning in formal and informal contexts and for various purposes and audiences
  • Knowledge about Texts: apply foundational knowledge and skills to understand a variety of texts, including digital and media texts by creators with diverse identities, perspectives, and experience, and demonstrate an understanding of the patterns, features and elements of style associated with various text forms and genres
  • Developing Ideas and Organizing Content: plan, develop ideas, gather information, and organize content for creating texts of various forms, including digital and media texts, on a variety of topics

Activity Description

Students explore the difference between needs and wants by creating their own concept map. Focus will be on using realistic examples.

Learning Goals

I can define and compare needs and wants by creating a Thought Organizer showing realistic examples.

Materials

Key Concepts

  • Considering future and life events
  • Decision-making
  • Needs versus wants

Prior Knowledge and Skills

Providing examples for ideas

Minds On

  • Lead a discussion on the difference between needing something and wanting something.
  • Ask students to think about present and future things that someone might need, and present and future things that someone might want. Each student writes a few needs and wants on different sticky notes. This may be done in pairs or small groups.

Action

  • Provide students with two Thought Organizers (refer to Materials), one for needs and another for wants.
  • In groups, have students complete the two Thought Organizers using the groups' sticky notes. Have students sort through the examples to decide where they think each belongs on the respective charts.
  • Groups create their own definition of needs and wants based on their exploration.

Consolidation

Lead a whole group discussion as students share their ideas and self-assess their ability to identify both needs and wants using the thumbs up strategy.

Debrief

Groups revisit their Thought Organizers to refine their thinking about what is a need and a want to answer these questions: Does your group agree with what you classified as a need versus a want? Why or why not? What would you change about your classifications?