Telling Goods and Services Apart in Our Community
About this lesson
Children learn the difference between goods (things you can touch and buy) and services (work someone does for you). They sort spoken examples with hand signals, then add their own community examples to a class chart. You need a whiteboard and sticky notes. It takes about 12 minutes.
Objective
Students will tell goods from services and give one example of each from their own community.
Prep
2 min: draw a two-column chart labelled Goods and Services on the board
Materials
- whiteboard and marker
- sticky notes
- pencils
Steps
- Point to the chart and say: a good is a thing you can touch and buy, like an apple or shoes, and a service is work someone does for you, like a haircut or a doctor's check-up.
- Call out examples one at a time: pencil, haircut, sandwich, fixing a car, toy, swimming lesson, shoes, delivering mail. Students tap their desk for a good or wave a hand for a service, and you write each example in the correct column.
- Give each pair two sticky notes and ask them to write one good and one service they have seen in their own neighbourhood, then stick each note in the correct column.
- Read several notes aloud and have the class give a thumbs up if the note is in the right column. Move any misplaced notes together and explain why.
- Finish by asking: when you buy a muffin at a café, what is the good and what is the service? Take two or three answers.
Quick Check
Ask each student to whisper to a partner one good and one service a grocery store provides, then listen in on a few pairs.
Differentiation
Make it easier: Use only examples you can show or point to in the classroom, such as books and crayons for goods and teaching or cleaning for services.
Make it harder: Have pairs name a worker who provides a service and list the goods that worker needs to do the job, such as a dentist and a toothbrush.
Good For
- Before lunch
- End of day
- Supply teacher
- Review
