Kindergarten Social Studies Unit 5

Economic Systems

Unit description: In this unit, students will examine the idea that people have economic needs and wants. Students will identify basic human needs, and distinguish between a need and want. Students will learn about goods and services in an economy and how they impact the needs and wants of the people in a community. In addition, students will learn about scarcity and of goods and services and be given the opportunity to identify examples of this. 

Standards 

Standard 4- Economics

Standard 5- Civics, Citizenship and Gov’t

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

Big Idea: Economic systems help satisfy people’s economic wants and needs.

What is the difference between a want and a need?

  • A need is something that you must have to survive.
  • A want is something that you would like but that you do not need to survive.

What are goods and services and how do they help satisfy people’s wants and needs? 

  • Goods are things that people buy.
  • Services are when people pay other people to do work.

What is scarcity and how does it affect people’s wants and needs? 

  • When there is not a lot of something, it is called scarce.
  • When goods and services are scarce, there are less to fulfill people’s wants and needs.

Download the complete Kindergarten Social Studies Unit 5 framework to customize for your own planning.