{"id":1801,"date":"2009-10-26T13:18:13","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T18:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/1801"},"modified":"2009-10-26T13:18:13","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T18:18:13","slug":"teaching-economics-with-childrens-literature-lets-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2009\/10\/26\/teaching-economics-with-childrens-literature-lets-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: Let’s Trade: A Book About Bartering"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"letstrade.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The book Let’s Trade: A Book About Bartering\u00a0<\/a>, written by Nancy Loewen and illustrated by Brian Jensen, is\u00a0part of the Money Matters series,\u00a0meant to\u00a0help children better\u00a0understand economics.\u00a0This specific\u00a0story\u00a0is about\u00a0how\u00a0Mr. Wallace’s third grade class\u00a0discover that money isn’t always\u00a0used to get the supplies that\u00a0people need.\u00a0 Mr. Wallace devises a game that shows the class\u00a0how different\u00a0things can be exchanged among people,\u00a0explaining that\u00a0cash and coins aren’t always necessary\u00a0to obtain the things they want.<\/p>\n

“‘A long time ago,’ Mr Wallace said, ‘people didn’t have money. They had to trade for the things they needed. Someone\u00a0might trade a basket of wheat for an ax, and that was fine as long as both people wanted those things. But what if the person with the ax already had plenty of wheat? The person with the wheat might trade for something else first– a pearl necklace, maybe. Then, he would trade the necklace for the ax.'”<\/p>\n

The illustrations used in this\u00a0story are big and bright, and really help to show the “bartering” that is discussed in Mr. Wallace’s class.\u00a0 Other nice features in this book include “Fun Facts” (offered by a mini piggy-bank on each page), a glossary, additional resources to help kids with economic ideas, and an activity page.\u00a0 The activity gives students different scenarios where they\u00a0get to\u00a0decide what a “fair trade” is:<\/p>\n

\u00a0“You and your friend both buy a pack of baseball cards. Your friend got your favorite player’s card. You trade him three of your cards for one of his. Did you make a fair trade?”<\/p>\n

Curriculum\u00a0Connections\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Let’s Trade” is a great resource for children just learning about economics.\u00a0 The story explains how bartering works in a very simple manner, and also gives some background information\u00a0about the history of money.\u00a0 In addition to the students learning the difference between using bartering and using money in exchange for goods (VA SOL 2.8), this book teaches that students have to make choices between goods because they cannot have everything they want (VA SOL 1.8).<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

This lesson, Old MacDonald Had a Farm<\/a>, is a great plan\u00a0to use\u00a0along with\u00a0“Let’s Trade”\u00a0as the\u00a0students\u00a0learn\u00a0about goods and\u00a0bartering.<\/p>\n

DFI KidsPage<\/a>\u00a0provides a great introduction to the history of money. Kids could easily use this as a supplemental computer activity, and it even\u00a0includes a self-check quiz at the end.<\/p>\n

This page<\/a>, posted in association with the University of Delaware, offers a\u00a0variety of books\u00a0(K – 6)\u00a0to use when\u00a0teaching ecomomics\u00a0through children’s literature.<\/p>\n

Boomerang Box<\/a>\u00a0is a website that introduces students to international trade.\u00a0 Here,\u00a0educators can download lessons and activities that teach kids why and where trade happens.<\/p>\n

Book: Let’s Trade: A Book About Bartering
\nAuthor: Nancy Loewen
\nIllustrator: Brian Jensen
\nPublisher:\u00a0Picture Window Books
\nPublication Date:\u00a0August 2005
\nPages: 24
\nGrade Range: k-3
\nISBN: 1404811575<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The book Let’s Trade: A Book About Bartering\u00a0, written by Nancy Loewen and illustrated by Brian Jensen, is\u00a0part of the Money Matters series,\u00a0meant to\u00a0help children better\u00a0understand economics.\u00a0This specific\u00a0story\u00a0is about\u00a0how\u00a0Mr. Wallace’s third grade class\u00a0discover that money isn’t always\u00a0used to get the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4424,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-economics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}