wants and needs christmas list with town mouse country mouse

It’s the last week before Christmas break, and we are busy finishing up our Fables and life lessons unit in our first grade classroom with a wants and needs Christmas list using The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse.

Listen. It’d be super easy to cash it in this final week with the lesson plans and print off some Christmas color by number printables and busy worksheets and call it a day. Truly.

But fluff stuff for the sake of fluff stuff is just not how I roll!  It’s a waste of my kids’ time, a waste of paper, and just flat out boring to this teacher!

So, we kept plugging away on our 7 week first grade fables unit all the way to Christmas break!  One of our last fables of this life lessons unit was The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.  Before you say it…. yes, I know this fable doesn’t have Santa, a Christmas tree, or even a winter scene inside of it. But even though this fable read aloud isn’t terribly “Christmas-y,” I love doing it around Christmas time because we make a wants and needs Christmas list and learn some economics with this book!

We started off reading the The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse and retelling the story, just as we did with the other fables like The Giving Tree.

Wants & Needs of The Town Mouse & The Country Mouse

Then, we reread The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse and talked about the wants and needs of the mice.  We charted what wants and needs mean on these fun and festive Christmas stocking anchor charts. And then after we read the story, we discussed what wants and needs the mice had in the story.

(If you aren’t doing this fable during Christmas time, you can make your wants and needs anchor chart a little more generic. Ha! But aren’t these so festive and adorable??)

At first, we just had the stocking anchor charts with the wants and needs headings and the definitions for each word. I waited to add the wants and needs picture cards until after the next sorting activity so the kids would actually have to think about whether it was a want or need and not copy off my anchor chart. 🙂

Wants & Needs Sorting Activity

Once we discussed the examples of the wants and needs of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, the students worked with partners or alone depending on the student’s preference, to sort the wants and needs of the mice.

Then, we checked the wants and needs as a class. (Do you see the checkmarks and stars on this kiddo’s work?? Makes me smile.) Once we were done checking our work, I finally added the correct picture cards to our wants and needs anchor chart.

Wants and Needs Christmas List

The next day, we extended this want and needs economics activity by writing about students’ own wants and needs for Christmas. The kids LOVED doing this and because it was close to Christmas, it really helped drive home the difference between a want and need.

The wants and needs Christmas lists were also helpful to send home to parents!

I love economics activities like this that we can connect to the Christmas holiday and are fun for the kids, but still substantial in content! And this unit of activities is short and sweet so it is easy to fit in during the busy holiday season. Plus, I love feeling confident that my first grade kids are learning new content all the way up to Christmas break!