Activity 1: Understanding Grocery Shopping

1. Ask students to look inside the grocery store items that they purchased during the shopping activity. Explain that they will find cutouts indicating what types of goods they have purchased as well as the services involved in the process.
2. Display the full MyPlate Goods and Services Image, and explain that it illustrates the proportions of each food group that should be included in a healthy diet. The “napkin” on the side shows the services that help get the food to the consumer (cash register checkout, transportation of food to the store, management of the warehouse where the food is stored).
3. As a class, discuss the following questions:
   • Was it hard to make choices about how to spend your money? Connect the various answers given to the way that grown-ups have to make hard choices sometimes, too.
   • Did you purchase foods that make up a healthy diet? Were you missing any food groups? Why?
   • Besides food, what other items do families buy because they need them? (clothing, houses, cars) What kinds of things do families buy because they want them? (computers, televisions, video games, movie tickets, etc.)
   • Where does the money that families spend come from? (Mom and/or dad have to have a job to earn money.)
4. Tell students that in the next part of this lesson, they will explore where the grocery store items come from.

Activity 2: How Did That Get in the Grocery Store?

1. As a class, read one or both of the books How Did That Get in My Lunch Box? by Chris Butterworth and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. 
2. Explain the difference between producers and consumers and then ask students to examine the items that they “purchased” during the shopping activity. Since they purchased the products, they are the consumers. Ask students to identify the producers of the products based on what they learned from reading the books. 
3. Have students list the jobs that are associated with the different products they bought (farmer, trucker, factory worker, baker, etc.), providing help with the first few examples as needed. 
4. As the jobs are listed, have students volunteer to “be” the person that does the job.
   Note: Including a dress-up component for this activity is a fun option. Some suggestions for careers and simple dress-up items are: 
   • Farmer: baseball cap, leather work gloves, shovel
   • Truck driver: baseball cap, steering wheel, road map or GPS, walkie talkie to simulate a radio
   • Factory worker: rubber gloves, hair net, badge
   • Baker: Paper baker’s hat, bowls, measuring cups
   • Chef: Chef or lab coat, hair net, cutting board, pan, cooking utensils 
   • Waiter: Black shirt, apron, tray loaded with cups and plates, a white cloth to drape over the arm
   • Food safety inspector: white lab coat, clip board, food thermometer
   • Grocery store clerk: apron, calculator or cash register, paper money
5. Once four or five students have jobs, ask the rest of the class to determine whether they provide a good or a service. For example, if the product is a container of yogurt, then the associated jobs would be the farmer who raised and milked the cows, the factory worker who made the milk into yogurt, the trucker who transported the yogurt from the factory to the grocery store, and the grocery store clerk who sold the yogurt to you. The farmer and the factory worker both created goods (point out that goods can be held in the hand), while the trucker and grocery clerk provided services (they did not create any object, but they did necessary jobs so that people could buy the yogurt).
6. Look at the items that were left over in the store from the shopping activity. Discuss the following questions: 
   • Why didn’t anyone buy the items? (too expensive, doesn’t taste good, etc.)
   • What happens to a producer when nobody buys their goods? (They don’t get money so they have to change their product so that people will buy it, or they have to get different jobs.)
   • Have students list other examples of goods and services to be sure that they understand the differences.

Activity 3: Invention

1. Have students invent a product or service that they think their classmates would spend money on and have them draw a picture of their invention. 
2. Tell students to consider that the goal is to get other people to buy their good or service, but that they also need to make money for themselves. Have them choose a price that they think will help them do both.
3. Take a poll: have several students volunteer to share their drawing with the class. Have them give a sales pitch and then tell the price of their good or service. Ask the class to respond by raising their hands if they would buy the product. Discuss as a class why students would or would not buy the product.