Grades 6–8 · Lesson 1 · 50 minutes
Stocks, shares, and markets
Students define a stock, share, market, portfolio, and volatility.
StockSt uses fictional currency and simulated shares for education only. This is not investment advice.
Warm-up
Run a quick poll: “If you could own a tiny piece of a company, which would you choose, and why?” Tally answers on the board and notice which reasons come up most (favorite product, popularity, friends, or something else).
Mini-lesson
- Teach five terms with a concrete example for each: a stock represents ownership in a company; a share is one unit of that ownership; a market is where buyers and sellers meet; a portfolio is the collection of investments someone owns; and volatility means how much prices move up and down.
- Explain that StockSt’s celebrity shares are a simulated stand-in for company stocks, so the vocabulary transfers to real markets even though the assets here are fictional.
StockSt activity
- Students explore the StockSt market and pick three shares. For each, they record the current price, the recent change, and whether the trend is up, down, or sideways.
- Vocabulary challenge: students match each term to an example from what they just saw (for example, “my three shares together are my portfolio”).
- Ask which of their three shares looks most volatile and why they think so.
Discussion
Ask, “Which term was easiest to see in the simulation, and which was hardest?” Use student answers to clear up any mix-ups between stock, share, and portfolio.
Exit ticket
Students define “portfolio” and “volatility” in their own words.
Assessment
Vocabulary check plus accurate use of terms in a short written response.
Student Learn links
Assign these before or after class so students practice the same ideas.