Unit 1 · 2026–27 · Grade 5
Trade Systems
Seven school weeks on trade, from shared supply-chain posters to student-owned company boards, a class market and final exhibition presentations. The unit finished on 14 October 2026. The wall helped students organise their research, review their posters and explain how they responded to changes at the market.
Central idea
Trade connects people and resources, and these connections can affect communities in expected and unexpected ways.
Lines of inquiry
- How trade systems move goods from producers to consumers (Function)
- How trade connects people, places and resources (Connection)
- How trade decisions create expected and unexpected consequences (Causation)
- Transdisciplinary theme
- How We Organize Ourselves
- Specified concepts
- Function · Connection · Responsibility · Causation
- Learner profile
- Open-minded · Communicators · Inquirers
- Approaches to learning
- Thinking · Communication · Self-management · Social skills
- Dates
- 1 Sep – 14 Oct 2026
- Summative
- The Trade Stories Market, Tue 13 Oct
- Trading companies
- 6 companies, 4 students each. Jobs: Researcher, CEO, Accountant, Designer
- Status
- Complete
- 1
Week 1
Tuning In - 2
Week 2
Finding Out - 3
Week 3
Your Trading Company - 4
Week 4
Business Plans & Posters - 5
Week 5
Making & Improving - 6
- 7
Week 7
Market Day & Exhibition
Week 1 · 1–4 Sep
Tuning In
A four-day first week. The students traced a Shanghai breakfast back to where each food came from. One decided the scallion noodles were half from Brazil, because of the soybeans. Then they built paper boats in the Trading Game from bags of uneven materials, trading for what they lacked. By Friday the Wonder Wall had their questions sorted under four headers: Money, People, Fairness, and Origin.
Main teaching point
Students need to see trade before they can name it.
Learning wall artifact
The wall before Day 1
The five trade posters went up before the students arrived: Origin, Factory, Transport, Store, You. The route was on the wall before anyone had the words for it.
What didn’t work / adjustment
The Trading Game put trade into a real experience. But for some students the trading turned into borrowing from each other, which was never the point, and the learning got lost there. I will rework the activity for next year.
From this week
Week 2 · 7–11 Sep
Finding Out
The central idea went up on Monday, after a week of wondering. The students traced a pencil and a cup of Chinese tea through the same five stops. The pencil was the right place to start. It is one of the most common supply-chain examples, so there were good videos and readings for every stage. Then the class went on a field trip to a chocolate factory. Back in class, chocolate became the real-life example, and the students used string and pins to connect it to the pencil and the tea on the wall.
Main teaching point
One chain, every lesson. A pencil, a cup of tea, and a chocolate bar all went through the same five stops.
Learning wall artifact
The five trade posters
Each stage had its own poster. Students answered the P4C prompts on sticky notes and named the thinking move they used. The string tied the chocolate to the pencil and the tea, stage by stage.
From this week
More from this week
Week 3 · 14–18 Sep
Your Trading Company
The class formed six trading companies, four students each, with four jobs: Researcher, CEO, Accountant, and Designer. Each company met to decide where it wanted to take the business and started a business plan. They designed an official company stamp for important documents and set up the class company task tracker. Most of this week's work happened in notebooks and in the groups. After the class voted on a new design for the wall, the students helped take everything down, and we got ready to use the wall more in Week 4.
Main teaching point
Four students, four jobs. Nobody hides in the group.
Learning wall artifact
One wall section per company
Each company owns one strip of wall, top to bottom. The brown paper went up first. Everything the company makes lives there.
What didn’t work / adjustment
Plans need room to change as students take ownership of their learning. I offered two layouts for the wall, with a preference for keeping the shared trade posters. The students chose a separate section for each company. I adapted the plan to support their decision, giving them more ownership of how they organised and used the wall.
From this week
Week 4 · 21–24 Sep
Business Plans & Posters
A short week, with Friday off for Mid-Autumn. Companies finished their business plans, then moved on to packaging and the first product designs. In each company the Designer and the Researcher took the lead on the poster. Half of each company's section is for one big poster. The other half is for planning: mini posters on A4 and A3, and cue cards.
Main teaching point
Lay out the poster before you fill it.
Learning wall artifact
The taped poster layout
The big poster has five sections every company has to cover: our supply chain, function and connection, causation, responsibility and fairness, and trade words. Designers taped out a space for each one before anything went up. One company taped a star under the five, for a creative element to pull customers in.
What didn’t work / adjustment
Wednesday was the last Trade Systems lesson until Monday, so the informational mini posters went home as homework. Each company will decide how the finished pieces go onto its big poster. I would have kept this part in class if there had been time. Monday starts with chasing the parts that did not come back, and pushing any company that is behind.
From this week
Week 5 · 28–30 Sep, continuing after Golden Week
Making & Improving
The six companies are making their products by hand. Honey is shaping clay throat candies and planning the packaging. Porcelain is making cups, plates and bowls from clay and broken porcelain craft pieces, with packaging next. Basketball is shaping toy basketballs from clay. Bamboo is folding paper baskets. Silk is making ribbons from craft materials and using wooden boxes to make them look more luxurious. Tea is building cardboard tea bottles. Alongside the products, companies put mini posters above the taped spaces for their main posters. We pulled up a chair to the wall, looked at one example from each company, and gave stars and wishes. The class then made a checklist for a GREAT poster. Students are going back to their work to add colour, stronger lettering, frames, backgrounds and useful visuals.
Main teaching point
The first poster is a draft. Looking at six real examples gave us a reason to revise it.
Learning wall artifact
Six mini posters, one class checklist
The checklist came from the students' stars and wishes, not a finished teacher example. We named what readers need: clear titles, thick dark letters and visuals, without too much text. I plan to keep the strategies near the UOI wall so students can use them again for the science fair and PYPx.
What didn’t work / adjustment
Some students still make posters quickly, the way they have in previous years, and the difference between a finished poster and a first draft is not clear to everyone yet. Taping out the main poster sections was useful practice, but getting the system set up took time because it was new to them. The student-run company tracker has worked well; the next job is helping them apply the poster checklist without waiting for me to point out every change.
From this week
Week 6 · Final preparation
Posters, Packaging & Presentation
Students used their sections of the learning wall to organise the final exhibition posters, bringing the smaller pieces of research together on their company boards. They then created the signs for their Market Day stalls. We pulled up a chair to the wall again to look at how well the posters were designed. Some students recognised that their letters needed to be bigger and bolder. The company boards, stall signs and packaging were all part of getting ready to share the work.
Main teaching point
Plan the poster for the reader: what needs to stand out, and what should they notice first?
Learning wall artifact
The company boards coming together
The wall gave us a place to arrange the information and review it together before the final presentation. Students could look across the company boards and consider how clearly each poster communicated its message.
What didn’t work / adjustment
The students do not yet fully understand how to plan a poster for maximum effect. Some recognised the need for bigger, bolder lettering, while other groups continued to rush. I will keep returning to layout, lettering and visual impact in the next units so these skills have time to develop before PYPx.
From this week
Week 7 · Unit completed 14 Oct
Market Day & Exhibition
We kept the first Market Day within our own class because this was a new unit. Each company received ¥200 in play money, set prices for its handmade products, and then had to respond to event cards I introduced. In one event, a celebrity visited the tea shop and demand rose sharply. The company had to decide how to change its prices. The events gave students an engaging way to experience intended and unintended consequences. After the market, companies updated their main posters with how they had handled the changes and used those updates in their final exhibition presentations. The unit finished on 14 October.
Main teaching point
Trade decisions have consequences. When demand changes, companies have to respond.
Learning wall artifact
Company posters: research, market decisions and reflection
The students enjoyed Market Day, and having that shared experience made the final exhibition more successful. Their posters supported a presentation about decisions they had actually made. The wall had helped organise the research; the market gave students something concrete to add to that story.
What didn’t work / adjustment
Keeping the market within the class made the first run manageable. Next year I hope to involve parents, other students and teachers from the wider school community. Poster design will remain a focus in the next units as we build towards PYPx.
From this week