Grants, Penalties and Priorities
A 55-minute Grade 5 lesson on how a government uses incentives when it cannot use prices.
Grants, Penalties and Priorities is a free 55-minute Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies lesson plan for Common Core standard D2.Eco.2.3-5 — spot the rewards and penalties that push people towards a decision. It is timed across 5 sections, gives the exact wording to use where the wording carries the mathematics, names 3 misconceptions with the teaching move that addresses each, and ends with an exit ticket and a printable worksheet with its answer key.
- Grade:
- Grade 3 to Grade 5
- Length:
- 55 minutes
- Standard:
- D2.Eco.2.3-5
Grade 3 to Grade 5 · Economics
D2.Eco.2.3-5
Identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.
Objective
Students will be able to classify an incentive, predict the behaviour, and say who it cannot reach.
Students are successful when they can
- Sorts incentives into positive and negative.
- Predicts the behaviour each produces.
- Names somebody an incentive cannot reach.
What you need
- The white paper's allocation rule
- Twelve incentive cards
- The printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan
The lesson
Warm-up — no price to raise
5 min- Materials are allocated, not sold. Ask how you make a council build faster with no price to offer.
- Collect first attempts.
Teach — direction, behaviour, reach
18 min- Positive: extra materials for councils that exceed a target. It pulls effort towards building.
- Negative: materials withheld from a council behind schedule. It pushes away from delay.
- Write the test: does this make the behaviour more attractive or less?
- Do publication of the councils that built least. Negative, and it works through reputation.
- Do priority on the list for the longest waiting. Positive, for the families it reaches.
- Now the limit: an incentive only works on somebody able to respond.
- Withholding materials from a council short of bricklayers punishes a shortage it cannot fix.
“Who can actually respond to this, and who is simply punished?”
Guided practice — sort, predict, test
17 min- Pairs sort twelve incentive cards.
- For five they write the behaviour produced.
- For three they name somebody the incentive cannot reach.
Independent practice
12 min- Students complete the 'Grants, Penalties and Priorities' page.
- Check the behaviour matches the direction.
Close
3 min- Name one school incentive and say who it does not reach.
What goes wrong, and why
Each of these is a reasoning error rather than carelessness. The fix addresses the reasoning.
Calls every negative incentive unfair.
Why: Penalties feel punitive.
Fix: A penalty for selling allocated timber protects everybody waiting for it.
Thinks incentives always work.
Why: The mechanism sounds automatic.
Fix: You cannot incentivise a council into bricks that do not exist.
Confuses an incentive with an order.
Why: Both change behaviour.
Fix: An order removes the choice. An incentive changes what the choice costs.
If they are not there yet
- Six cards, three of each kind.
- Give the behaviour and ask which incentive produced it.
If they finish early
- Design an incentive that would reach a council short of labour.
- Find an incentive with the opposite effect to the one intended.
- Say when publication works better than a penalty.
Exit ticket
'Materials withheld from a council behind schedule.' Which kind of incentive is that, and who might it fail to reach?
What to look for: Negative, and it fails a council whose delay is a shortage it cannot fix. Naming it without the reach test means half the lesson is missing.
Printable practice for D2.Eco.2.3-5
Free to print and copy, answer key included. Each sheet can generate a fresh set of problems for a retake.
- Grants, Penalties and PrioritiesSort each one into reward or penalty.
Questions about Grants, Penalties and Priorities
How long does the Grants, Penalties and Priorities lesson take?
55 minutes, split across 5 timed sections: warm-up 5 min, teach 18 min, guided practice 17 min, independent practice 12 min, close 3 min. The minutes are stated per section and add up to the stated length, so the plan can be cut or extended at a section boundary rather than abandoned halfway.
Which standard does Grants, Penalties and Priorities teach?
D2.Eco.2.3-5 — D2.Eco.2.3-5, Economics for Grade 3 to Grade 5: “Identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.” In plain terms, spot the rewards and penalties that push people towards a decision.
What do I need to teach this lesson?
The white paper's allocation rule, twelve incentive cards and the printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan. Everything listed is either ordinary classroom equipment or a free printable from this site — there is nothing to buy and nothing to prepare beyond photocopying.
What mistakes should I expect in this lesson?
Three, each a reasoning error rather than carelessness: calls every negative incentive unfair; thinks incentives always work and confuses an incentive with an order. The plan gives the thinking behind each one and the teaching move that addresses the thinking rather than the symptom.
How do I know whether the lesson worked?
The exit ticket asks: “'Materials withheld from a council behind schedule.' Which kind of incentive is that, and who might it fail to reach?.” Negative, and it fails a council whose delay is a shortage it cannot fix. Naming it without the reach test means half the lesson is missing. That tells you whether the class needs a reteach or a thirty-second conversation before you plan tomorrow.
Is there a worksheet to go with Grants, Penalties and Priorities?
Yes — 1 printable D2.Eco.2.3-5 worksheet, linked at the end of the plan and free like the rest of the site. Each one comes with an answer key and 25 versions, so the practice after the lesson can be a different paper on every desk.
Is Grants, Penalties and Priorities free to use?
Yes. The plan, its printables and their answer keys are free to read, print and photocopy for your own class, with no account and no email capture. It was last reviewed on 7 September 2026. Please do not resell it or republish it as your own.
Last reviewed 2026-09-07. Aligned to D2.Eco.2.3-5 of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.