Teaching middle school students about the relationship between money, spending, and inflation can be a little overwhelming and let’s face it; dry. It’s December, so when discussing rising costs, my students immediately thought about gift buying. I reminded them that there are many aspects to the economy and introduced a short introduction lesson about the historical cost trends of live-cut Christmas trees.
We started by discussing how long it takes a Christmas tree to grow before it is ready to sell – it’s 10 years! Trying to make historical events more relatable; we discussed how old they were when the following economic downturns affected tree sales:
It’s a lot for young students to take in. We created a comparison spreadsheet and column chart. The students had fun formatting fonts, adding fill colors and inserting images over cells. They learned that if spending grows at a faster rate than the economy’s ability to produce goods or services (supply and demand); then inflation will result. This was a fun and easy activity to start learning these concepts.
This illustrated, step-by-step holiday-themed lesson can be found at my TpT store, Seashore Scholar. Happy December!
