Wants vs. Needs

“Not 2, don’t roll a 2, please anything but a 2.”

[Die rolls…lands on a 2.]

“Noooooooooo!”

In our 5th grade classroom, we are learning about wants vs. needs and scarcity. It’s the start of our unit on economics, and we’re spending the week learning about some basic tenets of economics, including scarcity, trade, economic systems, and taxes.

We are playing a game about being trapped on a deserted island. We talked about what we would need, and they each chose 5 items (from a list) of what they would want with them.

Then, we started rolling the die. Every time we rolled a die, something would happen.

• Roll 1: Animals got into your food. Lose two units of food.
• Roll 2: One of your items broke and is now useless.
• Roll 3: You had a good day collecting food or water; increase your food or water by 2 units.
• Roll 4: You hurt yourself and need medical assistance.
• Roll 5: A storm blows; keep yourself warm and dry.
• Roll 6: Your fire goes out.

The students learned pretty quickly that matches and blankets were very useful, while food and water could disappear really quickly (since they used some up each day).

It was fun to watch them watch their supplies grow and shrink with each roll of the die.

They enjoyed it so much that we are going to play it again tomorrow, adding in the element of trade. How do people get what they need but don’t have? They trade for it! I wonder what they would be willing to trade for a set of matches…

Sources: I found this game on this site.