Choices and Opportunity Cost

The next-best choice you give up.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 51

Because of scarcity, we have to make choices. And when you choose one thing, you give up something else.
Mia has 5 dollars. She can buy a kite or a book, each 5 dollars. She buys the kite. She gave up the book.
The next-best thing you give up is called the opportunity cost. Mia's opportunity cost is the book.
If you rank your choices, the opportunity cost is the next-best one. Leo likes pizza best, then tacos, then soup. He picks pizza, so his opportunity cost is tacos, not soup.
Time has opportunity costs too. If you go swimming on Saturday, you give up going to the zoo.
Try it with a grown-up! Next time you choose a snack or a toy, say out loud what your opportunity cost is.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS2E1 — Explain that because of scarcity, people must make choices that result in opportunity costs.