Scarcity

   The most important concept in all of economics. How in the world do you teach it to third graders?

Well, I started out by passing out a bag of M&Ms. I didn't tell them how many to take or who to pass it to next. I just said take some and pass it on. So, of course, by the time it traveled to the other side of the room, those children has less M&Ms. Not a single one of them said a word. They just took the smaller amount and returned the empty bag. No complaining at all. Who gets such wonderful kids?? I am so blessed. Of course, these means teaching this concept that way wasn't going to work.

The next day, I took a desk out of the room. The student just simply went and found a place to sit at a nearby table. Again, not a single word. This wasn't working very well at all!!

The following day, I took two more desks out of the room. Now I am missing a total of three desks. Did they blink? Did it phase them? Nope. Not at all. They went and found other places to sit. I just have way too many small group areas in my room apparently. Not good!!

The following day, I took three more desks out of the room. Now I was missing six desks. Surely someone would act like they noticed. Nope. They all found another place to sit again. They were loving the freedom of not having to sit at the desk, but be able to move freely from small group area to small group area. Have I told you how 'go with the flow" my kids are?? They are amazing.

Finally, towards the very end of the day, a student asked me, "Is the teacher that borrowed our desks going to be bringing them back?" Hallelujah. Someone finally noticed!! I then spend some time talking about scarcity and how it was happening in the room. One of the other students finally chimed in, 'Oh that is just like not having enough M&Ms that first day. You have been trying to teach us by taking things away." My kids really understood it so much better because of the missing desks and the M&Ms.

Hard concept made simple!!