Indiana Social Studies 3.E.5
The Standard
List the characteristics of money, and explain how money makes trade and the purchase of goods easier.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students name features that make money useful, such as being accepted, portable, durable, and available in smaller amounts. They explain why paying is easier than finding someone willing to swap goods.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can name useful traits of money and show how to make change with play coins. They can explain why a seller might accept money for a book but not want the buyer's sandwich.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think any object counts as money, even if sellers will not accept it. They may think money must be cut into pieces to pay a smaller amount, rather than using coins of different values.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A seller wants no apples. Name two traits that make coins useful as money, then explain why coins make buying a book easier than trading apples.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Run a desk store: students first try trading object cards for supplies, then use play coins and price tags to buy the same supplies.
Ask, 'A farmer wants shoes, but the shoemaker does not want apples. How could money help?' Have students write an answer.
Play a matching game: pair portable with pocket money, durable with a coin, divisible with change, and accepted with a shop purchase.
Show a grocery receipt, have students circle three prices, then explain why the shopper did not have to trade objects for the groceries.
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Printable 3.E.5 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- GE.5.3
Define money and explain why it has value.
- 2.E.4
Explain why people trade for goods and services, and explain how money makes trade easier.
- GE.6.1
Explain the basic functions of money.
- 4.E.4
List the functions of money, and compare and contrast things that have been used as money in the past in Indiana, the United States, and the world.
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