Milo and the Magical Stones
Written by Marcus Pfister
Published by North-South Books
Copyright 1998
ISBN: 4062619814

Gabrielle Spencer recommends using the lesson, That's Not Fair! How Do We Share?, with this book.

Gabrielle says...

I chose this lesson plan and book with early childhood ages in mind. I felt that Milo was a perfect book to show scarcity of resources, unlimited wants, goods, and opportunity cost. The book offers two endings. The first shows what happens when the characters in the book use up all the resources in their environment due to unlimited wants and pay the ultimate price. The second ending demonstrates with a happy ending a wise use of resources. Ultimately the book is about sharing goods in a responsible way.

The lesson plan I found online seemed to tie in with the book. “That’s Not Fair! How Do We Share?” focuses on the economic concepts of decision making, wants, goods, opportunity cost, and scarcity. Through a couple of different activities, the children learn the same concept. The first activity is to divide kids into small groups and offer each group a set of materials to share. Within the groups, they must come to a decision about how best to divide up their resources. After the activity is completed, the teacher then asks how each group made sure everyone got what they wanted, and what happened when they did not.

The second activity is almost like the first except it can be done as a whole class. Each child takes turns taking a crayon out of a large crayon box until the last of the crayons is left. The class then must decide how the rest can be distributed. The children realize through this activity that there is no way everyone can have all the colors they want (scarcity). If you see two crayons you want, but can only have one, you have to make a choice (opportunity cost).

This lesson plan brings home an economic lesson, but also forces the kids to see sharing in a whole new way. At this age level, my only concern would be the small group activity. I would predict that a teacher would have to do a large amount of mediation to keep lesson on track.