Wants and Needs are in the history standards for kindergarten. This can be a really fun unit for kindergartners. They understand the concept of “want,” so you really just need to help them think about what they need. I like to teach this unit between Thanksgiving and Winter Break.
What do you want?
A great introduction to our unit is using the Black Friday ads to let them have fun with “wants.”
I put out the ads from Black Friday and they get a piece of paper to cut out 2 things they want for Christmas, their birthday, or as a special treat (depending on the beliefs in our classroom).
This adds ideas about WANTS…not needs.
What do you need?
Once they know what they “want” we talk about what they need.
Of course, we have a song to sing about “needs.” The song is to the tune of “Three Bling Mice.”
This song introduces the concept of need to the students.
Needs are what we MUST HAVE to to stay healthy and safe.
In addition to shelter, clothes, and food, students are also taught we need visits to the doctor, medicine when we are sick, glasses, and even plenty of sleep to stay healthy.
Wants v. Needs
Using picture cards, we sort through wants and needs. We can even sort the needs into shelter, clothes, food, and other things to keep us healthy and safe. We can make tree maps for things we needs or things we want. We can use the cards to do many activities like ABC order and syllable sort. We can look at magazines and cut things that we need.
CLICK HERE for the Wants and Needs FREEBIE or click on the image below.
If you are interested in the full pack, CLICK HERE for my TPT Wants and Needs Set or click the image below.
