Share
Grades K-12 Student Financial Literacy Passport Books Professional DevelopmentVideos, Music, PPTS
& Other Resources
Fourth Grade - Social Studies
Activities
A Map of Claims
Financial and Economic Concepts: Insurance
Fourth Grade – Social Studies
Standard 1: Students will understand the relationship between the physical geography in Utah and human life.
Objective 1: Classify major physical geographic attributes of Utah.
Time: 20 Minutes
Materials: Handouts
This quick and easy worksheet will help students become familiar with claims paid by insurance.
Student Worksheet (pdf)
Future Wants and Needs
Financial and Economic Concepts: Saving and Financial Investing Fourth Grade – Social Studies
Standard 1: Students will understand the relationship between the physical geography in Utah and human life.
Objective 3: Analyze how human actions modify the physical environment.
Time: 20 Minutes
Materials: Writing materials
Saving resources causes individuals to plan for future wants and needs.
Ask students to carefully consider some future wants and needs, then determine the one that they would want to obtain first. Have students also list the cost of the item.
Have students pretend that they are getting $5.00 allowance per week. Ask them to figure out how long it will take them before they can have the thing they want.
In a class discussion ask students if the item is worth the amount of time needed to save the money to purchase it. Why?
Pioneer Backpacks
Financial and Economic Concepts: Scarcity and Choices Fourth Grade – Social Studies
Standard 2: Students will understand how Utah's history has been shaped by many diverse people, events, and ideas.
Objective 2: Describe ways that Utah has changed over time.
Time: 45 Minutes
Materials: 2 backpacks, various survival/camping items, pioneer artifacts (label items with their costs), writing materials
Introduction:
Divide the class into two groups, pioneers and modern-day children. Give each group one backpack and explain the following procedures.
- You are packing for a three-day trip. Everything you pack must fit in a backpack. As a group, identify four necessities to take with you. Write these on your paper.
- Then decide on four additional items individually. Write these on your paper. Remember, you do not have much space in your backpack, so choose wisely what you pack.
- Have groups return together to share and compare their lists.
Extension:
Display pioneer and modern-day artifacts. Give the class time to observe, handle and discuss the items.
Then have the class divide the items into three groups; pioneer use only, today use only, and items that cross over between the two groups.
Discuss why some items from the pioneer times are no longer used, what items are used today that were not needed in pioneer times, and which items are still used today but may have been modified to fit our current needs.
With the last group, compare their costs. Brainstorm why items with the same use would change in cost over time.
Evaluation:
Have each child write down what they would pack as a pioneer child and as a child today for a three-day trip. Explain why each item is needed.
Assets Making Money
Financial and Economic Concepts: Saving and Financial Investing Fourth Grade – Social Studies
Standard 2: Students will understand how Utah’s history has been shaped by many diverse people, events, and ideas.
Objective 3: Investigate the development of the economy in Utah.
Time: 40-60 Minutes - Advanced Planning
Materials: none
This activity will help students understand that investing is buying products or services which are designed to yield future profit or income. Students will evaluate income producing assets and determine which are high-risk and which are low-risk.
Invite a guest speaker to visit the classroom and talk with the students about the following topics:
- Stocks
- Bonds
- Real estate
- Business
The following suggestions may be used in a class discussion:
Stocks:
- What is a corporation?
- How do people become part owners of a business?
- Explain “shares.”
- Who is a stockholder?
- What is the role of a stockholder?
- What ways might a stockholder earn money on stocks?
- Explain high-risk and low-risk stocks.
- How do you read a stock report?
Bonds:
- Who issues bonds? What organizations?
- Why do they issue bonds?
- Explain Government Bonds, Municipal Bonds and Corporate Bonds.
- How are bonds issued and in what units?
- What risks are there in bond investments?
- What returns are there in bond investments?
Real Estate:
- How is a home an investment?
- Why do people invest in the following?
- Improved land
- Unimproved land
- Explain risks involved in buying real estate.
Business:
- Why do people want to own their own business?
- Explain the difference in the following types of businesses:
- Sole proprietorship
- Partnership
- Corporation
- Explain how the following affect business:
- Demand for the product or service
- Location of the business
- Owner personal abilities
- Explain the risks involved in having a business.
Arrange a follow-up field trip for students to visit a bank, and investment firm or a real estate business to observe the concepts they have learned about.
Variations:
Teachers could assign the questions above to students in the class. Students could ask the questions to the guest speaker or a panel of guests who would answer and explain the concepts to the students.
Each section (stocks, bonds, real estate, and business) could be assigned to a group of students. Students would work as a team to research the answers to the questions and present their finding to the class with visuals.
Life in the Great Depression
Financial and Economic Concepts: Supply & Demand/ Financial Investments Fourth Grade – Social Studies
Standard 2: Students will understand how Utah’s history has been shaped by many diverse people, events, and ideas.
Objective 3: Investigate the development of the economy in Utah.
Time: 30 Minutes
Materials: Computer with internet, projector, writing materials
Students will view the slide show to learn more about the Great Depression. After discussing it, have the students write a journal entry as if you they were there. Encourage students to include their own imagination about what it would feel like to personally experience historical events and time periods.
Where Does the Money Go?
Financial and Economic Concepts: Saving and Financial Investing Fourth Grade – Social Studies
Standard 2: Students will understand how Utah’s history has been shaped by many diverse people, events, and ideas.
Objective 3: Investigate the development of the economy in Utah.
Time: 20 Minutes
Materials: Writing materials
Pretending that they get $10.00 allowance each week, ask students to list on a sheet of paper what they are going to do with their money, including the dollar amounts.
In a class session ask students to describe what they chose to do with the money. On the board categorize the ways students allocated the money.
Some students will probably list savings as a component of using their money. Ask these students what they are saving for. Why?
Demonstrate that in order to obtain future wants, it is usually necessary to save a percentage of the money that we receive. Ask students how this could be accomplished.
Repeat the activity and have students imagine they were early Utah settlers. Have a classroom discussion comparing what money might be used for then, versus what money is used for now. What are some similarities and some differences?
