I.

a.
b.
c.
d.

Lesson Topic Description/Plan Overview:

Expected duration: 30-40 minutes
Social Sciences: Economics
Concepts: Supply and Demand
Vocabulary:
i.
Demand- willingness to buy
ii.
Supply- the products and services that businesses
provide.
iii.
Scarcity- the supply of the product is not enough to
meet the demand for it.
e. Skills: Learning about supply and demand.
f. Broad Goals of Lesson:
i.
To understand what supply and demand is.
ii.
To understand what happens when demand exceeds
supply.
iii.
To understand what happens when supply exceeds
demand.
iv.
To understand how supply and demand affects
different choices.
II.
Content Outline
4. Supply and Demand
A. What consumers want helps business owners decide
what to make or sell.
B. Consumers wants create a demand for goods and
services.
1. Demand- willingness to buy
C. Supply- the products and services that businesses
provide.
D. Sometimes there is a high demand for a product or
service.
1. Businesses offer a greater supply of it to meet the
demand.
a. Ex: If a community has pets, there will be a demand for pet
care products and services.
2. The demand for these goods and services will
affect their price.

Supply and Demand Affects Prices

Consumers and
Supply and Demand
Producers
Consumers want more
High demand
Consumers want less
Low demand
Businesses produce
High supply
more
Businesses produce
Low supply

Usual Prices
Higher prices
Lower prices
Lower prices
Higher prices

less
5. Scarcity of Products
A. Prices are also affect by the scarcity of a product.
1. Scarcity- the supply of the product is not enough to meet
the demand for it.
a. Ex: If there was a drought, or a time of dryness, destroys all
of the wheat crops. Wheat becomes scares, and its price rises.
III.
Standards:
a. PDE SAS Standards
6.1.3.A: 6- Economics, 1: Scarcity and choice, 3: Grade 3, A:
Define scarcity and identify examples of resources, wants, and
needs.
b. PDE Common Core- Not applicable for this lesson.
c. NCSS Themes and Subthemes
IV.

V.

Objectives
The students will be able to define the terms supply and
demand.
The students will be able to identify what happens when demand
exceeds supply.
The students will be able to identify what happens when supply
exceeds demand.
In small groups, the students will be able to explain how supply
and demand affects choices such as: careers, types of cars
made, etc.
In small groups, give examples of instances where demand
exceeded supply and the results.
Teaching Procedures
A. Introduction/Anticipatory Set
Students will be given a box of tokens with at least two
different colors in it and asked to select any number of
them from 1 to a handful.
Place a value on the tokens. (Make certain this is done
AFTER students have already selected their tokens.)
Pull out an object students would desire to win and let the
students know that they will only receive an A on this
lesson if they own this selected item of which you happen
to have EXACTLY one of. You will announce the bidding to
be open at 10 and they may use their tokens to
purchase the item.
Continue auction until a student has paid a high price for
this item and received it. Then pull out a large supply of

the very same item just sold while announcing that you do
just happen to have a few more of these items and youre
willing to open the bidding at 1. (Wait and watch
reaction)
Write supply and demand on the Smartboard. Ask the
individual who bought the overpriced item to define what
these terms mean to him/her in light of the experience
he/she just had, explain why he/she was motivated to pay
such a high price for it, also ask if he/she would have paid
so much had he/she known there were enough items to go
around.
Have students turn and talk about this question: What if
these tokens represented money and this was all the
money you had available for two months?

B. Input
1. The main component of the lesson is an interactive
Smartboard presentation on supply and demand.
2. The presentation will begin by going over basic concepts
and terms that were previously discussed. Reviewing the
different vocabulary terms. The interactive presentation
will then show different scenarios of supply and demand.
3. The students will be asked to match what was the supply
and what was the demand during the previous activity with
the tokens and the prize.
4. Then have the students come up to the board and write
some of their own supply and demand scenarios.
5. Put up chart from outline and discuss how supply and
demand affects prices. Ask the students for some
examples.
6. Then review the term scarcity and ask students for
examples on how it relates to supply and demand.
C. Guided Practice
1. Ask students to think of three items in their desks and to
secretly set a price for each one of them on an index card
which is folded so that it can stand upright on the desks.
2. Instruct students to then take out the items and place
them by the appropriate price tag on their desks.
3. Invite students to go shopping and check out all the
prices in the store.
4. Have students answer these questions in their journals.
Now that you know how other merchants priced their
items how will it affect your pricing of the same items?

Were there some items that would be in high demand

because of their low supply? How might that affect
pricing?
D. Independent Practice
1. There is no independent practice for this lesson.
E. Differentiation
I will differentiate this lesson based on the specific
learning and behavioral needs of my students.
F. Closure
Students will turn in journal writing on what they have
witnessed during monopoly and what they heard in
discussions on competition in a free market and relate it
to the real world.
VI.

Formative/Summative Assessment(s)
Formative Assessment: The students will be assessed on their
participation in the beginning activity and the smartboard
presentation.
Summative Assessment: The students will be assessed based
off of their responses to the questions in their jornals.

VII.

Materials/Equipment:
1. Smartboard
2. Tokens
3. Prize for each student in class (it can be as simple as a piece of
candy)
4. Pencil
5. 3 Index Cards PER student
6. Journal

VIII. Technology:
Smartboard
IX.

Reflection on Planning
I created this lesson to help students grasp the concepts of supply
and demand. This lesson is very interactive and hands-on for the
students with the use of the Smartboard and the different
activities. I believe the best way for the students to learn is to be
put in a real life scenario that they can easily understand and
relate to, instead of just learning about the concepts in the
traditional way of just lecturing.

Teacher and Student Resources and Evaluation of Resources

A. Student Reading Resources:
Berson, M. (2010). Social studies: Our communities. Orlando, Fla.:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt School.
B. Teacher Resources for Lesson Design:
Berson, M. (2010). Social studies: Our communities. Orlando, Fla.:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt School.
http://www.realtrees4kids.org/ninetwelve/supply.htm
A. Evaluation of Teacher Resources Used for Lesson Planning Design. Attach a
chart that analyzed the resources used.
*Use this template or a similar format to record your evaluation of 3 or more sources used in your
lesson planning.
Resource
Title or
Website
Address

Influence:
Significant Influence
(SI) or
Minor Influence (MI)
in informing your
thinking, decisions
about the lesson plan

3+ Characteristics
suggesting that the
source is a quality
resource, reliable
material

Accessibility
Access for
teachers or
others

Overall Rating and

Suggestions for
current, future use of
resource

Social Studies:
Our
Communities

SI main reading and

content

Houghton Mifflin
School used
textbook
Authors

Very
accessible

3-4/5
Decent explanation,
supplementary
material needed

Smartboard

SI

Displays information
for all students to see.
-Interactive
-Allows for discussions

Very
accessible

5/5
Great for teaching the
students the content in
a fun and interactive
way.

Real Trees for

kids

SI

Explains supply and

demand very accurately.
-Contact information
given
-Gives extra places to
read more and also has a
place to ask questions
they might not have
answered in the website.

Very
accessible

3/5
Very generic, would
like to see more
examples of supply
and demand. The over
all website is very
easy to use.