What would you be willing to trade for some silk and how long would you be willing to wait to get your hands on it? Today, this question is quite easy to answer. With Taobao and delivery services, trading your money for silk and receiving it is quite a simple process. No matter where you are in the world, you have access to various items, religions, and information about other cultures. But this was not the case in 1046 B.C. during the Zhou Dynasty, when trade with surrounding countries just started to occur.
Our first Big Idea of the year, “Trade in China Influenced the World”, was the perfect unit for students to learn about what trade was in the past and how it shaped over time, especially the Silk Road and how it developed and changed, but before we could have students travel on the road of knowledge, we started off with the 3 puzzle pieces of our Big Idea: trade, influence and the world. Students briefly learned about these key words and we took a look at continents. This gave them an idea of how connected we are today, however in the past, only some continents were able to trade, due to the limitation of traveling on foot or with animals.
With the knowledge they gathered, students started to prepare and took on the role of teachers. Students focused on how to present information and how to use body language to ensure that others remain focused and that they were able to present information effectively. After a mini presentation and feedback session was held in class it was time for Grade 4 students to educate each other.
Lastly, here are some questions created by the students throughout the unit, do you know the answers? If not, you can work as a team to do research and discuss it at home.
If people decide not to trade, what would the world be like?
How did people trade on the Silk Road using different languages?
How many days did it take for traders to travel from Xi’an to Rome?