Needs and Wants Lesson (LKS2)

A complete LKS2 lesson for Y3/Y4 on needs, wants and prioritising from Tykeoons’ MoneySmarts. Active learning throughout, differentiated for all abilities.

Follow Fred, Fatima and Zia to explore not just the difference between needs and wants, but the trickier skill of prioritising: deciding what matters most when you cannot afford everything. The lesson builds from a paired card sort to a real-world budget challenge, where pupils decide which items Zia’s family should buy within their weekly budget. Pupils work independently on tasks that combine vocabulary work, sorting and a spending challenge involving totalling costs. Works as a standalone lesson or as part of the full MoneySmarts 7-9 series.

Suitable for PSHE and financial education, with a natural cross-curricular link to maths through addition and budget constraints.

Want a complete financial education solution for your school? MoneySmarts 7-9 is part of the Tykeoons primary financial education platform, containing hundreds of resources like this one.

This resource contains:

• A teacher presentation deck with built-in discussion prompts and whiteboard activities throughout
• A printable paired card sort (18 cards, one set per pair)
• A printable paired prioritising task (a family budget challenge with a fixed weekly limit)
• A printable independent activity at 3 differentiated challenge levels, each with an extension task