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Video Summary: Kindergarten teacher Meylin Gonzalez brings economic concepts to life in the classroom by creating a hands-on assembly line in which her students make bread. Ms. Gonzalez begins by reading a book entitled Pasta, Please to help students understand how pasta is made and where commercially prepared food comes from. Then they discuss the production and marketing processes involved in making and selling bread. Students invent a fictitious company called Kinderbread, make advertisements for their bread, and discuss how people make decisions about what they buy.
Working in groups, students form assembly lines and begin the process of making bread by hand. Each student has a job to do, such as adding an ingredient or kneading the dough. The assembly line structure not only illustrates the different steps involved in making bread, but also underscores the importance of each step in the production process. Meanwhile, Ms. Gonzalez starts a batch of dough in a bread-making machine. While the dough rises, Ms. Gonzalez explains concepts like supply and demand by first defining needs and wants and asking students to distinguish between them with examples from their own lives. The lesson concludes with a snack of fresh-baked bread, during which students compare the efficiency of making bread by hand versus using a machine.
“Making Bread Together” highlights the following NCSS standards-based themes:
Content Standards:
“I wanted my students to develop a curiosity and understanding of how things are made, to know that things like bread don’t simply show up at the store. But I also wanted them to experience what it’s like for everyone to have a job, to work together, and to realize the value of each person’s job.”
— Meylin Gonzalez
Meylin Gonzalez teaches kindergarten at Dickenson Elementary School in Tampa, Florida. Situated in a cruise-ship port of central Florida, near the beaches of St. Petersburg, Tampa is home to a diverse population. Dickenson Elementary School is located in a suburban community that supports a variety of small businesses and service industries. Approximately one-third of the students are Spanish bilingual.
Ms. Gonzalez started the year with a unit called All About Me, then moved on to units on transportation, insects, Native Americans, holidays, the seasons and weather, Black History month, forest and jungle habitats, the farm, the solar system, and the ocean environment.
Making Bread Together fell within the unit The Farm and Its Products. Before the lesson, the class read Pasta, Please, a book that explores the process for making pasta. Next, the class invented a fictional bread company called Kinderbread, and replicated parts of the pasta production process to make bread. Ms. Gonzalez introduced basic concepts in business and economics by discussing how buying decisions get made, then had the class create advertisements for their product. Finally, students went to work making bread, assembly-line fashion. Each student had a job to do, without which the bread could not be made. Simultaneously, Ms. Gonzalez mixed, kneaded, and baked dough in a bread machine, so that students could also compare production methods.
As the lesson concluded, the class categorized different products according to whether they were “needs” or “wants.” She reviewed the role of individual jobs in the production process, then invited different people to speak to the class about their jobs in the community. She segued into the next unit (on the solar system) by talking about the importance of the sun for life on earth.
Read this information to better understand the lesson shown in the video.
Content: Economics
Economics is a social science that deals with the production, distribution, exchange, supply and demand, and consumption of goods and services. Even young learners encounter examples of economic concepts in their daily lives: scarcity of time and resources, the difference between needs and wants, making decisions about what to buy, and spending money. However, young children are also likely to have misconceptions about basic principles of economics. For example, they may not see a connection between jobs, work, and income, or they may believe that the value of money is related to its size and color.
Young students can build an economics vocabulary as they sort out labels that describe different economic processes. As they learn about the variety of jobs that exist in a healthy economy they also begin to understand the importance of cooperation and interdependence, competition, some of the factors that go into making business decisions, and the relationship between work and meeting one’s needs. Some of the ways young students can explore abstract economic principles are by doing hands-on activities like making bread or pasta and then creating advertisements for the products they make.
Teaching Strategy: Learning by Doing
Young children learn best when they have direct, hands-on experiences and when they can relate what they learn to what they already know. In this lesson, students explored basic principles of economics by making a product (bread) and writing advertisements for their product. Then they created their own Needs and Wants chart and discussed how buying decisions are made — something they may already have experienced.
In addition to teaching students about supply and demand, the assembly line activity reinforced the value of the individual’s contribution to a given process, the importance of working together, and the satisfaction that comes from seeing a job through to completion. It also encouraged social interaction, student engagement, and collaboration in meaningful work. As Ms. Gonzalez showed, learning by doing energizes students, sustains their interest, and exposes them to content from other subject areas like math, art, reading, and writing.
As you reflect on these questions, write down your responses or discuss them as a group.
Before You Watch
Respond to the following questions:
Watch the Video
As you watch “Making Bread Together,” take notes on Ms. Gonzalez’s instructional strategies, especially how she breaks down abstract concepts. Write down what you find interesting, surprising, or especially important about the teaching and learning in this lesson.
Reflecting on the Video
Review your notes, then respond to the following questions:
Looking Closer
Let’s take a second look at Ms. Gonzalez’s class to focus on specific teaching strategies. Use the video images below to locate where to begin viewing.
Developing a Needs and Wants Chart: Video Segment
Go to this segment in the video by matching the image (to the left) on your video screen. You’ll find this segment approximately 18 minutes into the video. Watch for about 5 minutes.
Working on an Assembly Line: Video Segment
Go to this segment in the video by matching the image (to the left) on your video screen. You’ll find this segment approximately 5 minutes into the video. Watch for about 7 minutes.
As you reflect on these questions, write down your responses or discuss them as a group.
Reflecting on Your Practice
Taking It Back to Your Classroom
For related print materials and Web sites, see Resources.
NCSS Standards
Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies defines what students should know and be able to do in social studies at each educational level. This lesson correlates to the following standards for elementary school students:
VII. Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Distinguish between needs and wants; identify examples of private and public goods and services; describe how we depend upon workers with specialized jobs and the ways in which they contribute to the production and exchange of goods and services.
VIII. Science, Technology, and Society
Identify and describe examples in which science and technology have changed the lives of people, such as in homemaking, childcare, work, transportation, and communication.
Content Standards:
Economics
Print Resources
For Students
Berger, Melvin. Pasta, Please! Littleton, MA: Newbridge Educational Publishing, 1994.
Numeroff, Laura Joffe. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. New York: HarperCollins Juvenile Books, 1985.
Williams, Vera B. A Chair for My Mother. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Scott Foresman, 1984.
For Teachers
Phipps, B., with M.C. Hopkins, and R.L. Littrell. Teaching Strategies K-2. Master Curriculum Guides in Economics. New York: National Council on Economic Education, 1993.
Web Sites
For Teachers
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank
This site provides information about programs, online games, and other useful economics resources for students.
National Council on Economic Education program page
This NCEE source offers national standards, Internet-based lessons, economic news, and links for K-12 teachers and students.
National Council for the Social Studies
The NCSS provides teachers with an information service that includes curriculum content and assessment for ages 3 through 8.
Social Studies Standards in Economics: K-1
This site is a guide to economic lessons for kindergarten through first grade.