Goods and Services Teaching Resources

Make your goods and services lesson prep a snap this school year! Download printable coloring and sorting goods and services worksheets and digital activities that allow kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students to explore the difference between a good and a service.

In this teacher-created collection, you’ll find curriculum-aligned teaching resources that have been carefully reviewed and chosen by our teacher team to help you help your students understand these basic economic principles of society. This is our way of making your lesson planning easier!

Is this your first year teaching this section of the social studies curriculum, or are you just looking for some fresh ideas? Read on for some tips from our teacher team on explaining the difference between a good and a service, how to describe producers and consumers and some fun activity ideas!

What Are Goods and Services? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Whether you're introducing the topic in kindergarten or building on students' prior knowledge of goods and services, it's helpful to have a kid-friendly definition on hand to explain what these two concepts are! Here's how our teacher team breaks down each term and explains their differences:

• Goods are physical items that people buy or use to satisfy their needs and wants. We can touch goods!
• Services are actions or activities that people pay for to meet their needs and wants. We can't touch services because they aren't tangible.

Teaching Goods and Services — Fun Activities

This collection is stocked with plenty of printable and digital activities, but to help you get inspired, here are a few more ideas from our teacher team!

1. Go to Market! Break students into small groups. Have each group create a good or service, advertise and then buy/sell their creation at a classroom marketplace. This is a great project for 1st grade to demonstrate their learning!
2. Business Partnership Challenge. Have your 5th grade students work in small groups to create a partnership between two small businesses. Each group can represent a different business and negotiate partnership agreement terms, such as how they will share profits and resources. Students should be thinking about the benefits and challenges of partnering with another business and how partnerships can help small businesses succeed.
3. Meet an Entrepreneuer. Explore the role of small businesses in the economy by inviting a local entrepreneur to visit your 4th grade classroom. Before the visit, brainstorm questions as a class to ask the entrepreneur about the challenges and rewards of starting a business.

Read on for more useful information about goods and services for your lesson plans!

Goods and Services Examples

Looking for some goods and service examples your students can actually relate to? We've got you covered!

Goods Examples for Kids

1. Toys
2. Pencils
3. Cellphones
4. Books
5. Pizza
6. Cars
7. Sneakers (or tennis shoes)
8. Computers
9. Gluesticks
10. Paper

Services Examples for Kids

1. Haircut
2. Music lesson
3. Dentist appointment
4. Car repair
5. Plumbing service
6. Dog grooming
7. Pizza delivery
8. House painting
9. Babysitting
10. Dog walking

Important Goods and Services Vocabulary

Here are a few important vocabulary terms for your social studies lessons.

• Consumer — A person who buys and uses goods and services.
• Producer — A person or business that makes or provides goods and services.
• Supply — The amount of goods and services that are available for sale.
• Demand — The amount of goods and services that people want to buy.
• Trade —The exchange of goods and services between countries or individuals.
• Entrepreneur — A person who starts and runs a business, taking on financial risk in the hope of making a profit.