I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll… teach you about resources?
Any preschooler can probably recite the story of the three little pigs. But what may not be readily apparent to any of us is that this powerful little story is also a “teaching” fairy tale as it actually provides a perfect illustration of the four types of economic resources that are critical to anyone who is seeking to learn more about financially literacy.
Continuing our focus on economics this week of Financial Literacy Month with FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™, let’s look at the role of resources in this classic story. What resources did the little pigs use? What resource—or resources—enabled them to build a bigger, stronger, and safer home?
First, as a family or class, briefly recap the story of the three little pigs. If you need a refresher, you can find a good version here.
Next, draw on the board—or designate the best artist in the family to draw on a piece of paper or on a write-on, wipe-off board—each of the following elements of the story:
The characters: three little pigs, big bad wolf
The houses: straw, wood, and brick
The destruction of the houses: Illustrate the destruction by scribbling on the homes as the wolf destroys them.
A Lesson in Being Resource-FULL
To get kids thinking about the types of resources in the tale, ask the following questions:
Where does the straw or wood come from?
Who harvests the straw or wood?
How does the farmer or lumberjack gather/deliver the straw/wood?
Who is going to build the houses?
What tools will they use?
Finally, work together with kids to make a simple chart and group each answer into the correct category: capital resource, human resource, natural resource, or productive resource. Encourage them to list any additional resources they can think of related to the story.
What resource or resources ended up being most important?
Kids will probably answer “bricks,” which is both a natural resource and an intermediate good. But an even better answer might be a human resource—in the form of the third pig, who used his ingenuity to determine the strongest building material to keep out the big bad wolf.
What Can Your Kids Build?
Take this economic exercise further by “building upon” the concepts from Three Little Pigs. Ask kids to think about something they’d like to build and then explore different resources and materials to ensure the structure is solid. A few ideas might be a club house, tree house, puppet show stage, or even a fort in the basement.
Visit Us Every Day in April
Tomorrow we’ll continue Financial Literacy Month with our next Weekend Reading book recommendation. This time we’ll look at It's Not Fair by Caryn Rivadeneira, which explores ideas about generosity and how much money is enough. And we’ll offer another fun suggestion for older readers. Be sure to carve out. Bit of time this weekend or as a warm-up to the week next Monday by checking out tomorrow’s blog post.
For more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ for students in kindergarten through eighth grade or to download any of the 29 sections of the program, please click below.