A Fun and Educational Social Studies Activity!

Last week I was lucky to participate in a wonderful activity in my Integrating Teaching in Social Studies class. I will explain how you can do this activity in your own classroom. Materials: cups, big glass bowl, 9 index cards labeled with items your class will probably have with them, playing cards, and M&M's or Skittles. You have your class make a circle and give each student a card. The cards should contain 1 King, 1 Queen, 1 Ten, and all other cards should be a 1-9. Tell your class they are being transported back to Colonial Times. The student who gets the King is the King of England, the Queen is in Parliament, and the ten is the tax collector. Everyone else are colonists. Now, pass out cups with 20 M&M's or Skittles in them. The candy is their money. The King has decided to start levying taxes because of the cost of the French and Indian War. The King also has the power to double taxes on two of the items listed on the index cards, that should be turned faced down. The King will turn over a card with what will be taxed first, for example, Paper=3. The tax collector and Parliament member will collect 3 pieces of candy from each colonist who has paper with them. Then they will dump the "taxes" into the clear bowl. The King will turn over card after card, taxes (candy) will be collected, until all cards have been overturned. Most colonists will be out or only have a few pieces of candy left. You will then have the colonists discuss how they feel, what they want to do, and how taxes could be more fair. The King, Parliament member, and tax collector will count the candy and divide them this way: 50% for King, 40% for Parliament, and 10% for the tax collector. Have the colonists explain their discussion. Finish by putting the candy that was used away to avoid germs, and give each student an individual pack of candy. This is a great activity and sparks some great discussion, while making learning fun!