Grades 3–5 · Lesson 3 · 45 minutes
Why do share prices move?
Students identify simple events that can raise or lower a simulated share price.
StockSt uses fictional currency and simulated shares for education only. This is not investment advice.
Warm-up
Show a simple line chart that goes up and down (the price chart on a StockSt share page works well). Ask, “What do you notice? What do you think was happening when the line went up?”
Mini-lesson
- Explain that prices can change when people become more or less interested in something. When many people want a share, its price tends to rise; when fewer people want it, its price tends to fall.
- Introduce the word “demand” as “how many people want something,” and practice using “rise,” “fall,” and “stay about the same.”
StockSt activity
- Reveal three “news cards,” one at a time: a celebrity releases a popular project; a celebrity takes a break; a competing celebrity becomes popular.
- Group work: for each card, students predict whether the share price will rise, fall, or stay similar, and write one sentence about why.
- Simulation check: later in the lesson, or at the next class meeting, compare the groups’ predictions with the actual simulated price movement on StockSt. Remind students that a prediction can be reasonable and still turn out wrong.
Discussion
Ask, “Did anything surprise you?” Highlight groups that gave a clear cause-and-effect reason, whether or not they guessed the direction correctly.
Exit ticket
Students complete the sentence, “When good news happens, people may want to buy because…”
Assessment
Students connect an event to a likely price change and use words such as “demand,” “rise,” and “fall.”
Student Learn links
Assign these before or after class so students practice the same ideas.