I Mean Business

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.