HASS · Year 3

Active learning ideas

Needs and Wants

This topic introduces your students to the fundamental economic concepts of needs and wants. It provides a framework for understanding why we can't have everything we desire and how we make choices every day.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• Australian Curriculum: HASS - Year 3 - Economics and Business - The difference between needs and wants and why choices need to be made about how to use limited resources

• 30–60 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Four Corners
• 45 min · Pairs

Needs and Wants Collage Sort

Students cut out images from old magazines and catalogues or draw pictures of various items. They then sort these images onto a large piece of paper divided into two columns, 'Needs' and 'Wants', and share their reasoning with a partner.

Identify three examples of your personal needs and three examples of your wants.

Facilitation Tip

Provide a diverse range of magazines to ensure a good mix of clear-cut needs and wants.

What to look for

Use an exit ticket where students must draw or write one example of a personal need and one example of a personal want before leaving the classroom.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness

Activity 02

• Four Corners
• 30 min · Small Groups

Desert Island Survival

In small groups, students imagine they are stranded on a desert island. Given a list of 20 items, they must choose only five to take with them, justifying each choice based on its importance for survival.

Explain why a house is a need, but a mansion is a want.

Facilitation Tip

Encourage debate within groups and have each group present their final five items and their rationale.

What to look for

Students complete a 'T-Chart' sorting activity with a list of 10-15 items and services, then write two sentences explaining the rule they used to sort them.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Four Corners
• 60 min · Whole Class

Community Needs Walk

Take the class for a walk around the school or local neighbourhood. Students use a checklist or notebook to identify and categorise places and services as meeting a community 'need' (e.g., medical centre, grocery store) or a 'want' (e.g., lolly shop, cinema).

Compare the needs of a person living in a hot climate to a person living in a cold climate.

Facilitation Tip

Discuss safety procedures before the walk and debrief afterwards to consolidate findings as a class.

What to look for

Students use a 'traffic light' system (red, yellow, green) to indicate their confidence in defining needs and wants and providing examples for each.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Begin with personal and relatable examples before moving to broader community or global contexts. Use visual and hands-on activities like sorting cards and drawing to make the abstract concepts of needs and wants concrete for your students. Regularly use 'turn and talk' opportunities to allow students to verbalise their thinking and learn from their peers.

Upon completing these activities, your students will be able to clearly distinguish between items that are essential for survival and items that are simply desired, and explain their reasoning.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• If I really, really want something, it must be a need.

  A need is something you must have to survive, like air, food, and water. A want is something you would like to have to make life more enjoyable, but you can live without it. How much you desire something doesn't change it from a want into a need.

• Everyone in the world has the same needs and wants.

  While all people share basic survival needs, our specific needs and wants can be very different. They depend on where we live (climate), our culture, our age, and our personal situation. For example, a warm coat is a need in Tasmania during winter, but it's a want in Darwin.

• Money is a need.

  Money itself is not a basic need for survival. It is a tool we use to obtain the things we need and want, like buying food (a need) or a video game (a want).

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Methods used in this brief

• Four Corners