Beacon Unit Plan Library

I Mean Business

Laurie Ayers
Beacon Learning Center (Bay District Schools)

Description

This unit provides an opportunity for students to become actively involved in a simulated business project to learn basic economic concepts. A puppet, Eco the Gecko, will be used during the first part of the unit to guide student learning concerning the economic process: wants and economic choices, goods and services, work and income, producers and consumers, interdependence, and the purpose of markets. The second part of the unit allows the students to become immersed in the process by actually producing products to be sold at Market Day and then marketing them to each other. Throughout the unit students will earn money for jobs done within the classroom. This money will be used to purchase items on Market Day.

There are two types of lessons in this unit. There are lessons that deal with the Social Studies standards addressed and there are lessons for Reading Frameworks integration, which use a literary selection to reinforce the social studies theme. Other Reading Block Components as described in The Teacher's Guide to the Four Blocks by Patricia Cunningham are integrated into daily lesson plans. Due to the fact that this unit is integrated, often times you can get in more than one lesson per day.

Questions

What is a producer?
What is a consumer?
How is a good different from a service?

Duration

The planned duration of this activity is 14 days.

Unit Matrix and Standards

Click here to view the curriculum matrix which illustrates the unit's instructional design and lists standards addressed in the unit.

Attached Files

Unit Plan Overview (PDF)     File Extension:  pdf

Diagnostic Assessment (PDF)     File Extension:  pdf

Summative Assessment 1 (PDF)     File Extension:  pdf

Summative Assessment 2 (PDF)     File Extension:  pdf

Summative Assessment 3 (PDF)     File Extension:  pdf

Unit Summative (PDF)     File Extension:  pdf

Lesson Plans

Eco the Gecko and the Story of Economics
Eco the Gecko, a puppet, leads students on a journey to discover basic concepts of economics.

Market Day Adventure
Students become immersed in the economic process by participating in this Market Day project. Students produce goods, market goods, and earn money to buy goods. They are engaged as both producer and consumer while exploring basic economic concepts.

Super Sellers
Students practice purposeful listening skills by listening to the novel, Max Malone Makes a Million written by Charlotte Herman. The book is read aloud to students as part of the I Mean Business economics unit.

Web Links

In this Student Web Lesson, students learn the differences between goods and services and producers and consumers.
Business Buddies