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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 8

Colonial Trade & Work

Resources, trade and choices

What your child practices

Resources, specialization and trade in the colonies, mercantilism, and the Atlantic slave trade and its impact on African peoples, told plainly and age-appropriately.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 5.4.21.2; 5.2.10.1 · work and trade in the colonies, and indentured servitude and slavery

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A need is something you must have to live; trade is exchanging goods or services.
  2. Saving money helps with a future need.
  3. Colonists smuggled to avoid English trade rules. Enslaved people resisted because they were forced to work.

Example: Why was smuggling common in the colonies? England made strict trade rules and taxes. Smuggling let colonists avoid them. Answer: to avoid English trade rules and taxes

Colonial Trade & Work in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 2 of 8 in 5th grade Social Studies, after The Thirteen Colonies and before Road to Revolution.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is trade?

    • Keeping everything for yourself
    • Paying a fine
    • Exchanging goods or services
    • Building a fort

  2. Question 2

    England's rule that colonies should send raw materials to England and buy its finished goods is called…

    • Democracy
    • Immigration
    • Independence
    • Mercantilism

  3. Question 3

    What is interest on a loan?

    • A free gift
    • The first payment
    • A tax on land
    • Extra money paid for borrowing

  4. Question 4

    Why was money useful in the colonies?

    • It was not useful
    • It grew on trees
    • It made trading easier than bartering
    • It could be eaten

  5. Question 5

    Smuggling was common in the colonies because…

    • Colonists wanted to avoid English trade rules and taxes
    • There were no ships
    • It was legal everywhere
    • The king asked them to

  6. Question 6

    A farmer chooses to plant wheat instead of corn. What is the opportunity cost?

    • Nothing
    • The farm
    • The corn she could have grown
    • The wheat

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