Grades 6–8Ages 11–14 · Unit 3.1 · How Money Systems Work
Opportunity cost is always charged: a free worksheet for grades 6–8.
Every dollar spent is a dollar not spent somewhere else, and the thing you gave up never appears on the receipt. What makes this page work is that it charges the sensible choices too: saving the $120 costs you the shoes, and taking the shift costs you the afternoon.
No account. No email. Nothing collected about your child.
What is on the page
- Four paired choices to complete across two columns
- What you get, and what you gave up
- A write-your-own decision from the last month
- An answer page covering all four, in both directions
What it teaches
- Naming the cost that does not appear on a receipt
- That every option has one, including saving and working
- Saying a trade-off out loud in a single sentence
How to run it
Watch for a student writing “nothing” in the saving row. Saving has an opportunity cost too — the page is not arguing that spending is bad, it is arguing that nothing is free.
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Where it comes from
Unit 3.1 · How Money Systems Work of a 266-lesson curriculum.
This sheet is one activity, unchanged, from Financial Foundations™. Teachers can run a free five-week pilot with one class. Families can take the Family Edition home.