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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 12 of 13

Free Enterprise & Work

How Americans make, sell and earn

What your child practices

How the free enterprise system works and its benefits, supply and demand, how people in different regions earn a living, immigration and migration, and mass production, specialization and division of labor.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 5.10(A); 5.10(B); 5.10(C); 5.11(A); 5.12(A); 5.12(B); 5.12(C); 5.12(D) · the free enterprise system, supply and demand, regional economies, migration and mass production

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. In free enterprise, businesses are mostly owned by private people.
  2. Supply and demand: more demand with the same supply raises prices; much more supply than demand lowers them.
  3. Division of labor splits a job into steps for different workers. Factories grew near rivers for power and shipping.

Example: Supply of apples is much greater than demand. What happens to the price? Sellers have too many apples. They lower prices to sell them. Answer: It goes down.

Free Enterprise & Work in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 12 of 13 in 5th grade Social Studies, after Symbols, Rights & Citizens and before Mapping the United States.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Why did the cattle industry grow in Texas after the Civil War?

    • cattle could fly
    • beef was banned in the North
    • there were many cattle and growing demand for beef in the North
    • cattle were rare in Texas

  2. Question 2

    When demand for a product goes up and supply stays the same, the price usually…

    • goes down
    • stays at zero
    • goes up
    • disappears

  3. Question 3

    Immigrants have helped the US economy grow by…

    • working, starting businesses and bringing skills
    • closing factories
    • stopping trade
    • leaving every job empty

  4. Question 4

    Many people in coastal towns of New England and the Texas coast earn a living from…

    • cattle drives
    • growing wheat
    • the sea
    • mining coal

  5. Question 5

    When the supply of a product is much greater than demand, the price usually…

    • doubles
    • goes up
    • stays very high
    • goes down

  6. Question 6

    When the price of gasoline goes up, consumers often…

    • stop paying attention
    • buy bigger cars
    • drive less or buy smaller cars
    • drive more

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