Economic Thinking With Jon Klassen's Animal Hat Books

Understanding economics is essential for success in today’s world. The article titled “Economic Thinking with Jon Klassen’s Animal Hat Books” by Jennifer Lynn Gallagher and Eibhlin Kelly explains that economics are a concept taught in social studies which deals with money, resources, and goods and how to make choices when those products are limited. Introducing and exposing students to economic thinking at an early age can help students find knowledge and skills to use throughout life concerning economics. The article suggests that teachers find opportunities to highlight an economic concept in their already planned lessons. Major economic concepts include scarcity, choices, and tradeoffs, which are included in many trade books teachers use

The turtles had to make a decision about what to do with the hat. The article introduces a strategy called snapshot notes where students pause when exploring a resource to draw pictures with captions about what happened in the book. Students then draw an additional set of pictures with captions on how it relates to their lives. This strategy helps students to construct a deeper understanding of the concept being taught. In the second book of the series, This is Not My Hat, a little fish steals a hat from a big fish. This decision, based on the scarcity of hats, allows the little fish to enjoy the hat for a small amount of time, but ultimately the big fish gets his hat back. The little fish must deal with the implications of his actions. When dealing with economics, scarcity requires decision making. The next strategy introduced is story mapping. This is when students retell the story by analyzing what happened in the story, the cost and benefits of the character’s actions, and deciding if the choice made was good or bad. Students can apply the knowledge from story mapping to other books they read. In the final installment of the series, I Want My Hat Back, a bear has lost his hat and goes on a mission to find

This book is about a boy named Jeremy who wants a new pair of shoes like other boys in his class. He asks his grandma, but they cannot afford the tennis shoes he wants. The other students laugh at Jeremy when they see his old shoes. Jeremy’s grandma and he go looking for the tennis shoes at thrift stores, but he only finds a pair that were way too small. His grandma ends up buying Jeremy the too small tennis shoes and a new pair of black winter boots that were more affordable. Another boy in Jeremy’s class named Antonio has shoes that are taped up worse than Jeremy’s was. Jeremy decides to give Antonio the small tennis shoes after seeing him eyeing the shoes at Jeremy’s house. In the end, Jeremy got to wear his new black boots that no one else had because it was snowing outside. This book would align with want versus need and wealth as it relates to economics. Although Jeremy wanted the new tennis shoes but did not need them to survive. His family’s wealth and economic well-being meant that he could not get the shoes like the other children in his class. This book would teach students the difference between want versus need which is a concept that drives the world’s economy. Also, it speaks on household wealth which is an important part of economic well-being. The production, distribution, and exchange of money for goods is the basis of