Unit Plan 31 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Choices and Trade

Focus: Help students understand choices, trade, needs and wants, and opportunity cost through simple classroom trade simulations and discussions about limited resources.

Grade Level: 2

Subject Area: Social Studies (Economics • Community Life)

Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 30–45 minutes per session

I. Introduction

In this unit, students explore how people make choices when resources are limited and how they can trade with others to get different goods they want. Through picture cards, role-play, and simple trade games, they practice deciding what to keep, what to trade, and what they have to give up—their opportunity cost. Students also review needs vs. wants and see how trade can help people get what they need or want, but not always everything they wish for.

Essential Questions

• What is a choice, and why do we have to make choices?
• What are needs and wants, and how do limited resources affect what we can have?
• What is a trade, and why do people trade with each other?
• What is opportunity cost—what do we give up when we choose or trade one thing instead of another?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

1. Explain how needs, wants, and limited resources affect the choices people make.
2. Participate in simple trade activities using picture cards or classroom items.
3. Describe how trade can help people get goods they want, but also requires them to give up something.
4. Use the word opportunity cost to explain what they gave up in a choice or trade.
5. Create a short “My Trade Story” showing a choice, a trade, and the opportunity cost.

Standards Alignment — 2nd Grade (C3-based custom)

• 2.C3.Econ.4 — Describe choices, opportunity cost, and simple trade/exchange.
  • Example: “If I choose art center, I give up extra recess time today.”
• 2.C3.Econ.1 — Explain needs vs. wants and the idea of limited resources.
  • Example: Choose between two items at a class “store” and justify the choice.

Success Criteria — Student Language

• I can tell the difference between needs and wants.
• I can explain that resources are limited, so I must make choices.
• I can describe what trade is and give an example from our class activities.
• I can use the words opportunity cost to tell what I gave up when I chose or traded.
• I can write or draw a short trade story that clearly shows my choice and what I gave up.