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I Can Dream Anything!

Key Economic Concepts:

• Choice
• Specialization

Description:

After listening to the song, 'I Can Do Anything', students discuss services that people in the community perform. This lesson will let students know that there are many careers out there and many choices to be made!

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

• Discover that people make choices because they cannot produce everything they want to consume; they must specialize in something.
• Name several service occupations in the community.

Introduction:

Can your students really DO everything? Can your students really BE anything? The one true statement is that your students really can DREAM anything. This lesson is based on the song, "I Can Do Anything," and students find many service occupations within the song. They will discover that we can do many different things, but we can't do them all! Choices have to be made!
President	Basketball Player	Plumber	Astronaut

Resources:

• I Can Do Anything:  Read and/or sing the song titled "I Can Do Anything." They should scroll down the words to find all the services mentioned in this song. This is an original song written by the author of this lesson.
  www.econedlink.org/lessons/docs_lessons/279_anything1.pdf

Process:

When addressing the concept of service, it is important for the students to realize that a service is something someone does for someone else. Services satisfy people's wants. Styling someone's hair, fixing someone's pipes, entertaining people, teaching students, etc. are all examples of services. In the early grades, people in these occupations are often called community helpers.

Specialization occurs when people work in occupations that use specific skills and strengths. By specializing, people are able to make choices about their resources that benefit them and others. A pilot is not also a doctor, dentist, rodeo performer, and a veterinarian. It benefits everyone that a pilot spends his/her time flying a plane and not being everything else. Although the pilot can have other jobs, when all is said and done, he/she must decide how to spend his/her time and other resources.

After the students read and/or sing the song, "I Can Do Anything," ask them if the song says that they can do EVERYTHING? [No.] Discuss if whether an Olympic runner can also be a photographer. [Yes.] Discuss whether that Olympic runner can be doing a photographer's job AND running in the Olympics at the same time. [No, when the runner is running a race, she cannot stop and take pictures or carry the camera.] Can the runner be a policewoman, veterinarian, and a photographer? [Although the runner could have a occupation other than running (which provides the service of entertainment), they would not have all those occupations because of the scarcity of time.]

Ask students: What if a person really wanted to be a barber, a railroad engineer, a pilot, a cowboy, AND a police officer? [There is not enough time for him to be all of these. We can't always have everything we want - that is why we have to make choices.]

Conclusion:

The students can be asked what our community would be like if we didn't have people providing services for us. Would they like to have one of these occupations when they grow up? What choices would they need to make in order to do one of these jobs? [Get training, go to college, do well in school, assist in offices while in high school, etc.]

Assessment Activity:

Students help match the picture of the person performing a service to the service he or she provides in this drag and drop activity.

Links Used:

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