Summary of Lesson Plan:

Australian Curriculum Links:

Background Information:

As part of our Inquiry topic into Needs and Wants, students have been exploring how different people from various places around the world, or different animals have different needs and wants. They also have needs and wants that are similar (air, water). We will continue to explore the role of industries and businesses in catering for our needs and wants with their products and services. This will lead into exploring jobs and careers, money and finances.

AIM: for children to gain an understanding that there is a hierarchy, or order, of needs/wants in our lives. These are usually similar for people to gain greater fulfilment in their lives. If their basic needs are not met, can they achieve a higher stage in the pyramid? What things are essential for basic needs in life to be met? What do people want to do when their basic needs are met?

Lesson Plan/Activity Sequence:

Introduction:

• Discuss/ review the previous lesson about how we have different needs and wants, depending on who we are, where we live and what we are (eg comparing animals). This was completed as a Venn diagram, so we could compare/contrast.
• Ask, Can we order what things are more important in our lives? How would we do this? How do we decide which is more important than another? What are humans’ basic needs? And what does this mean?
• At this stage, you could introduce who Maslow is and what his theory is. Otherwise you could just talk about the levels of needs/wants as per the labels in the attached document if you choose to use them.

Body:

• Draw a pyramid on the whiteboard, a poster, or even draw one in chalk on the ground.
• Use the coloured labels from the attached document to identify the different levels. Discuss each, alternatively the children could predict where they would go on the pyramid, basic need on the bottom, or further up on the level of needs/wants. (This may be confusing if they see the pyramid with the most important thing at the top, so it’s important to discuss how the top is actually when you have all the things in your life to make you feel complete, as per Maslow’s theory. Otherwise, you could invert the pyramid).
• Children participate in placing the word cards into the correct category of the pyramid, this could be done randomly, or in order. The picture cards may also be used to help connect the concepts in words for each category.
• Students could then draw their own pyramid of needs/wants in the books. They could add some everyday items, such as Ipods, chocolate, fruit, blankets, basketball, friends, new clothes etc,  to help understand where each item should go in the pyramid.

Conclusion:

• Discuss different children’s pyramids and their similarities and differences.