One of the big parts included in the Exploration Unit is the Triangle Trade system. This is vital because it is important for students to see how and where goods were being traded around the world and what kinds of impacts trading had on countries. Through out Africa, Europe, and North America, many different goods were being exchanged such as slaves, crops, gold, and animals.
To help my students understand the triangle trade system, I rearranged the desks in my classroom to represent these three continents. From there, students wrote the name of a good on a big piece of paper. To show where these goods moved from, students would attach long strands of yarn from one area of the world to another. For example, you could represent a trade of slaves moving from Africa to Europe. You could do this by stretching a piece of yarn between the two sets of desks and placing a piece of paper titled, “Slaves” in the middle of the string. On the page, you would also have to include arrows to show where the slaves were moving. By the end of the lesson, there were dozens of pieces of yarn starched across the room to represent the trading routes. This representation made students realize how often trades occurred and where different goods were moving over time.
Overall, the lesson went very well. It is very easy to prepare because all you need is yarn, paper, and some strong cooperation from your students. As long as your students act in a mature manner, this lesson can be very beneficial. Just be sure to remind them to take it seriously and respect the classroom as well as their classmates. You can even create a worksheet for them to complete by looking at their representation after all of the pieces of yarn were stretched out.
If you are interested in using this idea, check out this site for some information on the triangle trade system.
