This document discusses an economic fable about Peter Rabbit and his family. It explores the economic concepts of scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, costs and benefits through the story. Key points include: - Mrs. Rabbit tells her children they must pick berries due to a scarcity of resources. The opportunity cost of picking berries is losing time to play. - Peter gets in trouble for sneaking into Mr. McGregor's garden and eating vegetables. The costs of getting caught outweigh the benefits of taking the food. - As a consequence of getting caught, Peter cries and learns he must make better choices in the future by not stealing. Mr. McGregor reuses Peter's clothes to make

1. Once Upon a Decision:
Economic Decision-making with Peter Rabbit

2. A Tale of Decisions and Consequences
At the end of the story what was Peter Rabbit’s problem?
What was Mrs. Rabbit’s solution?

3. Root Cause of Problem
What were some of the decisions that Peter Rabbit made in the book?

4. Wants, Needs, and Consumers
Mrs. Rabbit goes to the bakery to buy bread.
What happens when we go to the store to buy goods?
When is food a want? When is food a need?

5. Wants, Needs, and Choices
The rabbit family needs food to survive. They also have wants for extra treats.
What did Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail decide to do to satisfy their wants for
dessert?

6. Scarce Resources/Scarcity
Mrs. Rabbit told her children that she had a scarcity problem. She was
out of berries. Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail had to make a choice.
Should they play or pick berries for their mom?
.

7. Should Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail play or pick berries for Mrs. Rabbit?
When we make a decision, we give something up. That is the opportunity
cost. What was the opportunity cost of their decision to pick berries?

8. What choice should Peter Rabbit make?

9. If you could give advice to Peter, what would you say?
Should he help his sisters pick berries for dessert or should he sneak into Mr.
McGregor’s garden?

10. Choices and Consequences
Peter made a different choice.
What were the consequences of his decisions?

11. Producer
Mr. McGregor is a producer. He grows vegetables
to sell at the market.

12. What goods did Peter take from Mr. McGregor’s Garden?
Are they fruits or vegetables? How do you know?
Go online and check out the prices of fruits and vegetables. How much does Peter
owe Mr. McGregor if he ate one head of lettuce, a bunch of radishes, and a bag of
carrots?

13. Productive Resources/Human, Capital, Natural
Peter runs into the farmer, Mr. McGregor. He is using a tool to plant his
vegetables. Check out the next few slides for more tools. Workers are
considered human resources and their tools are capital resources. Who are
the human, capital, and natural resources on Mr. McGregor’s farm?

14. Another tool, but Peter isn’t sticking around to find
out how it is used!

15. Costs and Benefits
Were there more costs or benefits to Peter’s decision?

16. How can he solve his problem?

17. What are the costs and benefits of this decision?

18. Productive Resources/ Capital Goods
Here is another one of Mr. McGregor’s tools or
capital resources. How does he use this tool?

19. More capital resources
There are more capital resources. How does he use
these?

20. Consequences
Why is Peter crying? List all of the consequences of Peter’s decision so
far.

22. What choice could he make NEXT TIME?

23. Innovation
Mr. McGregor reused Peter’s coat and shoes to make a
scarecrow. What is the scarecrow supposed to do? Do you think it
is working? Why or why not?

24. Services
Mrs. Rabbit provides services by cooking dinner.

25. Consequences
There were more consequences to Peter’s decision.

26. Costs and Benefits
What were the costs and benefits of their decision to help pick berries?