Science and Social Studies

Our Next Social Studies Units:  Personal Financial Literacy

The holidays will provide the perfect backdrop for our next social studies unit, personal financial literacy.  During this unit students will build their understanding of the factors that influence our personal financial decisions.  A focus of the unit will be on exploring how we make decisions and the positive and negative consequences of those decisions. Students will review the difference between wants and needs and will also be introduced to the concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost. Short and long-term goal setting will also be addressed during this unit.

Essential Questions:

• What influences the financial decisions people make?
• How does scarcity effect me?

Sample Learning Targets

• I can sort a list of items into wants and needs and explain my reason for how I sorted the list.
• I can explain what scarcity means and give two examples of scarcity.
• I can set both short and long-term financial goals.
• I can discuss the positive and negative consequences of my financial decisions.

Things You Can Do at Home

• Talk with your student about how s/he makes decisions about how to spend his/her money.
• Share examples of how you budget as a family. This might include discussing how you save the money for a special purchase such as a family vacation.
• Consider setting a short and long-term financial goal as a family.  An example of a short term goal might be dinner and a movie as a family.  Develop a plan of how you will save the money needed to meet your family goal.