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What Could You Buy with a Dollar?

Grades
 1-3

Subjects
 Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts (reasoning and critical thinking, listening, and oral communication), Economics (money)

Themes
 Needs and Wants, Change, Decision-making, Economics

Resources
 Historic catalogue from this site; overhead projector (optional)

Description
 This is a new kind of dollar store! Imagine it is the fall of 1918, and you have just received the Eaton's Fall and Winter 1918-19 catalogue.
What could you buy with a dollar?

  1. Using the guidelines in Introduction to the Resources, print out one or two pages from the Eaton's Fall and Winter 1918-19 catalogue (links suggested below, but many other pages are appropriate too).
  2. Project these pages onto a screen or wall or photocopy for individual or group use.
     
  3. Ask students to identify what they could buy with a dollar to spend. Some of the actual prices may seem surprising from a present-day viewpoint and students may benefit from a class discussion concerning why the relative prices of goods seem so inexpensive by today's standards.

 
   
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