Fun Activities to Teach Needs and Wants in Kindergarten

📚 Objective

Students will be able to differentiate between needs and wants through interactive activities and discussions.

🎒 Materials

• ✂️ Construction paper
• 🖍️ Crayons or markers
• 🖼️ Pictures of various items (food, toys, houses, etc.)
• 🎲 Dice
• ✅ Worksheet with needs and wants categories

☀️ Warm-up (5 minutes)

Start with a quick discussion about what students had for breakfast. Ask them if they needed it to start their day or if they just wanted it.

✏️ Main Instruction

• Needs and Wants Introduction (10 minutes)

  Explain the difference between needs and wants using simple language. Needs are things we must have to survive (food, water, shelter), while wants are things we would like to have but can live without (toys, candy, video games).

• Picture Sort (15 minutes)

  Show pictures of various items. Have students sort them into two categories: Needs and Wants. Use construction paper to create two labeled columns on the floor or a table.

• Needs and Wants Dice Game (15 minutes)

  Create a simple game where students roll a dice. Each number on the dice corresponds to an item. They then decide if that item is a need or a want and explain why.

• Story Time (10 minutes)

  Read a short story about characters making choices between needs and wants. Discuss the choices the characters made and why.

📝 Assessment

• ✅ Worksheet: Distribute a worksheet with pictures. Students color the needs one color and the wants another color.