Inflation basket: a 6th grade lesson on rising prices
What it is: a 6th grade math and economics activity where students build a pretend basket of 5 things, price it this year and next year, and compute the percent change. It mirrors how the Consumer Price Index tracks the prices of a basket of goods over time, and it shows why the Federal Reserve aims for prices to rise about 2 percent a year over the long run.
Time: about 40 minutes. Grade: 6th grade.
Materials: a basket card with practice prices for this year and next year (cereal $4.00 to $4.20, sneakers $60 to $63, bus pass $30 to $30, haircut $20 to $22, notebook $2.00 to $2.10), calculators and a recording table. Tell students these are practice numbers, not real data.
- Ask: "Why does something cost more now than when your grown-ups were your age?" Define inflation: prices of the things we buy going up over time.
- Groups total the basket for this year ($116.00).
- Groups total next year ($121.30) and find the change ($5.30).
- Compute the percent change: 5.30 divided by 116 is about 4.6 percent.
- Compare with the Fed's long-run goal of about 2 percent. Ask: "Is our pretend basket rising fast or slowly?"
- Each group changes one price, predicts whether the basket's percent will go up or down, then checks.
- Discuss: if an allowance stays at $10 but prices rise 5 percent, what happens to what it can buy?
Differentiation: students who need support use whole-dollar prices. Students who are ready compute the percent change for each item and find which one rose fastest. English learners can use the words price, rise and percent.
Quick check: ask: an item costs $50 this year and $52 next year. What is the percent change?
Save this activity to your library so it is ready when you need it.
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About this resource
- Shared by
- @UpOnlyLearning · Curriculum team
- Posted
- Oct 31, 2026
- Type
- Lesson plan
- Grade
- Grades 6–8
- Subject
- Math, Social studies
- Language
- English
- License
- Free for classroom, co-op and tutoring use. Please don't resell.