Today my students learned about supply and demand. Since my background is in economics, I knew this was a difficult concept to teach 7 and 8 year olds ; so I used something they were familiar
with: stickers. We talked about "Mrs. Gallant's sticker company" and how they wanted to make all the money they could and still get rid of their stickers. First we looked at a bucket with one sticker for each student and they told me that, since they all had one dollar in front of them, I should charge one dollar a sticker and I will get all of their money. Then a sticker bandit ran into the room (Mrs. Galvin) and stole almost all of my stickers. Students then concluded I should charge more then one dollar and they would have to pool their money to buy the few rare stickers. Next the sticker bandit apologized and brought in a large bucket of stickers. I reminded students that I didn't want any stickers and I had to sell them all. They concluded that the price of stickers should be only a few cents so that I sell them all but still make money. I was really impressed at the problem solving strategies my students came up with during our activity and I know we all had a great time learning supply and demand!