Grade 5 Business & Finance

32 of 36 lessons are MUST COVER. They are tested on the unit tests and exams, or are skills the SAT/ACT relies on. OPTIONAL lessons are enrichment. Do them if time allows. The course is complete when the MUST COVER lessons are done.

Unit 1: Work, Trade and Value

• MUST COVER 1.1 Made to Work: Vocation and the Dignity of Labor · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.2 Scarcity, Choice and Opportunity Cost · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.3 Specialization: Adam Smith’s Pin Factory · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.4 Trade Routes: The Phoenicians, the Silk Road and the Hanseatic League · unit test

Unit 2: The Story of Money

• MUST COVER 2.1 Barter and Commodity Money · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.2 The First Coins and the Gold Trade: Lydia, Croesus, Rome and Mansa Musa · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.3 Banks and Paper Money: China’s Jiaozi, the Goldsmiths and the Bank of England · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.4 From the Gold Standard to Fiat Money · unit test

Unit 3: Markets

• MUST COVER 3.1 Supply and Demand: Prices Are Signals · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.2 Competition: Why Many Sellers Serve Customers Well · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.3 Monopolies, Guilds and Cartels: The Limits of One or a Few Sellers · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.4 Who Decides? Markets, Planners and the Mixed Economy · unit test

Unit 4: Great Businesses and Their Stakeholders

• MUST COVER 4.1 What Makes a Business Great? The Six Stakeholders and Josiah Wedgwood · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.2 The Medici Bank: Financiers, Risk and Trust · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.3 Ford’s Model T and the $5 Day: Builders, Workers and Customers · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.4 Milton Hershey: A Chocolate Bar, a Town and a School · unit test

Unit 5: Workers, Owners and Fair Rules

• MUST COVER 5.1 Capital and Labor Need Each Other · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.2 Children Belong in School: Lord Shaftesbury, Lewis Hine and Child-Labor Laws · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.3 Safe Work and Safe Food: Fire Codes, Workers’ Compensation and the Pure Food and Drug Act · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.4 Keeping Markets Honest: Just Weights, Standard Oil and When Rules Go Wrong · unit test

Unit 6: Entrepreneurship and Sales

• MUST COVER 6.1 The Entrepreneur: Seeing a Need and Taking a Risk · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.2 Testing an Idea: Prototypes and Customer Feedback · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.3 Honest Selling: Wanamaker’s Price Tags and Money-Back Guarantee · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.4 Pricing and the Pitch: Cost, Value and Break-Even · unit test

Unit 7: Bookkeeping and Accounting

• MUST COVER 7.1 Pacioli and Double-Entry Bookkeeping · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.2 The Income Statement: Revenue, Expenses and Profit · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.3 The Balance Sheet: Assets, Liabilities and Owner’s Equity · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.4 Honest Books: The Drapers’ Guild Syndics, Audits and Tally Sticks · unit test

Unit 8: Saving, Investing and Giving

• MUST COVER 8.1 Budgets and the Three Jars: Joseph’s Seven Years · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.2 Interest and Compound Growth: The Talents and Franklin’s 200-Year Gift · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.3 Stocks, Bonds and the Buttonwood Tree · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.4 Debt, Giving and the Family Market Day · unit test

Unit 9: Bonus: Run a Real Business OPTIONAL unit

• OPTIONAL 9.1 Choose and Plan: The One-Page Plan
• OPTIONAL 9.2 Make It and Cost It
• OPTIONAL 9.3 Sell It Honestly
• OPTIONAL 9.4 Close the Books: Profit, Lessons and Giving

From the course’s own 36-week pacing guide, with catch-up and review weeks added to fill a 36-week (180-day) year.

Grading: Projects (effort, careful counting and the improve-it step) 40%, Ledger notebook (dated pages, tables with units, honest records) 20%, Unit reviews 15%, Portfolio projects 25%. Scale: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69. Below 60: redo the project or review with help.