Trading Day - Canada's Trading Partners
One of the topics I thought would be fun to cover as a co-op day was Canada's Trading Partners. We had a great trading day!
The resource I most used for this day was Canada and It's Trading Partners.
To start with I began by asking the children if they knew about trading terms. We discussed the meaning of imports, exports, trade deficits, trade surplus, trading partners, GNP, Free Trade and others. I then had the children get into two groups. One had a term and the other a definition. I mixed them all up and they had to find the child that matched them.
I then handed out to each of the children two cards. One represented a country and the goods or services that country imported to Canada (these had a red border), the other was the goods or services Canada exported to that country (these had a black border). I got the information for the cards from Canada's Trading Partners.
Each child read aloud from their cards and placed their cards on a map that I had brought. I used this map so that they could also see the development of that country.
http://magazine.canadiangeographic.ca/worldmap/cida/about.asp?language=EN&Resolution=800x600
By the end, we had a map covered with many different countries around the world that Canada trades with.
By the end, we had a map covered with many different countries around the world that Canada trades with.
The next thing we did was a string trade exercise which again I got from Canada's Trading Partners. I had a large ball of wool. Each child received a piece of paper with who they imported from and who they exported to. They then sent the string over to their trading partner holding on to their end. By the time all the children had read aloud their pieces of paper and passed on the wool, we had a web of trading partners. This was a great exercise to see the interdependence of countries and how much they rely on trade.You can find the Import/Export Cards and the Terms and Definition Cards on my Homeschool Launch page.
http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/profile/8943
Finally, we had a return of a Kidsboro trading day! (refer to this post: http://truenorth-bchomeschoolmom.blogspot.com/2011/08/if-i-had-been-blogging-when-kidsboro.html)This time, we again had a variety of goods and services, including a spa, a photography studio with dress up clothes, a bakery, a craft shop, a 2nd Hand shop, a candy shop, a bakery and so on. This was again a wonderful time for the children. This was an indoor event and so much fun. Many of the children had learned from our last Kidsboro event and had an even greater time with their goods and services!!
Blessings!
