Bartering Activity

As multiple books on money pointed out, bartering is what all children do automatically with their Halloween candy! Everyone has probably had some experience with trade and barter. But this activity made it a little more regimented. Each child got a small bag of a different kind of candy. I had them make charts to show how much value each kind of candy had to them personally, and then I just let them have at it! It was interesting to see which kinds of candy became more valuable as the activity went on (because of scarcity…some people were more reluctant to trade than others) and which things the children thought they valued, but found themselves settling for less with as the trading frenzy took over. :) Some of the kids were more methodical about it, trying to amass a variety of candy across genres. Others seemed to like the act of trading more than the commodities they actually traded for.

And the children, of course, were just super excited to have all these good things to eat!