Bartering is a way for producers and consumers to obtain different types of goods.
Bartering is the exchange of goods or services between two mutually consenting entities and is used by people to gain access to goods or services they may not be able to otherwise obtain. Bartering is not as common in modern times due to the advent of money, credit cards and other ways to procure goods and services. Different types of activities can be included into lesson plans that demonstrate the basics of bartering.
Instructions
1. Prepare bags with different types of goods in them. Divide the class into teams of children. Provide each team with a unique bag of goods. Ask each team to obtain goods they don't have by bartering for them. Give the teams a time limit and specific goals.
2. Ask students to find a recipe from a country other than their own. Assign each student to a different crop that could be an ingredient for a recipe. Have each student barter for the ingredients of her recipe. Ask the students to accomplish the same task using money to show the difference between bartering and monetary trading.
3. Teach students about colonial times in America. Assign each student to a different trade that would have existed during those times. Ask the students to chart the different services they would need during a week in colonial times. Have them barter for those services over the course of the lesson. Have them count the number of people they had to talk to during the activity to demonstrate the concept of the Workers Web, which refers to the interdependence between workers who provide different services.
4. Talk about ancient Greek times and how Greeks switched from bartering to contractual agreements that allowed them to increase trade during those times. Ask students to determine how countries could directly barter or create agreements for goods such as cloth, bronze, gold and food.
