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First Grade - Language Arts
Activities
Monster Musical Chairs
Financial and Economic Concepts: Scarcity and Choices
First Grade – Language Arts
Reading: Literature Standard 1: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Speaking and Listening Standard 2: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
Language Standard 5: With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at home that are cozy).
Monster Musical Chairs
by Stuart Murphy
ISBN: 0-06-028020-4
Time: 75 minutes
Materials: Copy of Monster Musical Chairs by Stuart Murphy, eight chairs, Copies of 5 handouts, located in the lesson plan, CD and CD player, crayons, one piece of drawing paper per student, masking tape
Students listen to the book Monster Musical Chairs and identify the scarcity problem the monsters had – not enough chairs for every monster to have one. Students wear a picture of a want that they have drawn and play a version of musical chairs in which the chairs are labeled as goods. Students learn that a good can satisfy a want. They also learn due to scarcity not everyone’s wants are satisfied.
Determine how many students know how to play musical chairs. Read the story and help students listen for the problem the monsters have each time the music stops. Tell students the monsters have a scarcity problem. Explain scarcity means not being able to have all the things you want.
Place eight chairs back-to-back, in the front of the room. Tell students that an economic want can be satisfied by a good. Students draw something they want on an “I Want” card. (see handouts on link below). Goods (also on link below) are taped on the chairs. Nine students play the game, just like musical chairs. Continue to play rounds until one student is left.
Complete Lesson Plan, Handouts, and Discussion Questions (pdf)
Lesson provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Philadelphia.
Choose
Financial and Economic Concepts: Opportunity Costs First Grade – Language Arts
Writing Standard 2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Writing Standard 8: With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Speaking and Listening Standard 5: Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
Time: 45 minutes
Materials: Materials for 5 different independent activities, “My Choices” handout
Organize five classroom activities which students enjoy and can be performed independently. Examples might be painting, listening to music, watching a movie, looking at books, or playing with class toys.
Tell students that during a thirty minute period they may be involved with two fifteen minute activities. Let the students choose the two activities they want to do. Let them know that once a choice is made, no changes will be accepted.
Following the activity, talk with the students about how they enjoyed their choices. Ask them if they would choose differently if they could again. Why?
Help students understand priorities, or the things that are most important to them. Prioritizing needs and wants helps an individual determine what is obtainable.
My Choice (pdf)
The Mitten
Financial and Economic Concepts: Scarcity First Grade – Language Arts
Reading: Literature Standard 1: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Reading: Literature Standard 2: Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
Speaking and Listening Standard 1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
- Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
- Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.
Speaking and Listening Standard 2: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
The Mitten
by Jan Brett
ISBN: 978-0399219207
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: The Mitten by Jan Brett; links to a worksheet, quiz and interactive activity are embedded in the lesson.
Explain that it is a story about a little boy who loses his snow-white mitten in the snow. Some small animals find the mitten and move into it, thinking that it would make a good home. Then some funny things begin to happen.
The story shows some ways in which things can go wrong when there isn't enough of something to go around.
Pictures of The Mitten Animals
5 Question Quiz (pdf)
Communities - What They Provide for Us
Financial and Economic Concepts: Goods and Services First Grade – Language Arts
Writing Standard 1: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
Writing Standard 2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Writing Standard 3: Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.
Time: 45 minutes
Materials: computer, worksheets (linked in the lesson plan), writing paper, pencils, crayons, scissors, and glue.
Students learn about goods and services as well as different types of jobs. They demonstrate their knowledge of these concepts by creating a working community on paper and writing about it.
Dog Gone Job
Financial and Economic Concepts: Career Management First Grade – Language Arts
Writing Standard 2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Speaking and Listening Standard 1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
- Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
- Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.
Speaking and Listening Standard 3: Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information or clarify something that is not understood
Speaking and Listening Standard 4: Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
Time: 35 minutes
Materials: computer, paper and pencil
Students learn about different types of jobs in a specific field. They learn about specialization and special skills for performing these jobs. Write a job announcement specifying tasks that the worker will need to do.
