What is the difference between wants, needs and priorities?
I can make spending decisions by understanding needs, wants and prioritising.
What is the difference between wants, needs and priorities?
I can make spending decisions by understanding needs, wants and prioritising.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- It is up to you to make decisions about your money.
- Needs should be prioritised over wants.
- Prioritising helps you to spend wisely.
Keywords
Want - A want is to have a desire or a wish for something. Sometimes the thing you wish to have is called a want.
Need - A need is to require something because they are essential or very important, not just because you would like to have them.
Priority - A priority is something that you think is more important than other things and should be dealt with first.
Common misconception
Pupils may think priorities are always what you would personally want or enjoy the most rather than being what is best in the context or situation.
Ask the children to share examples of times when they have had to accept not getting what they wanted. Stories about siblings and sharing are often good for this.
To help you plan your year 4 financial education lesson on: What is the difference between wants, needs and priorities?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 4 financial education lesson on: What is the difference between wants, needs and priorities?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 financial education lessons from the Making money decisions unit, dive into the full secondary financial education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Need
Want
Exit quiz
6 Questions
Something essential or very important.
A thing you wish you could have.
Something that you think is more important than other things.