Feudalism Simulation Game

Objective: Students will be able to describe the political and economic system in Europe in the middle ages with a hands-on role-playing game.

Materials: The card game and 120 M&Ms.

Directions: print and put the cards into a hat or bin. Students grab a card and that is a character. The names are based off of real medieval people, and the peasants have been assigned occupational names which might interest the students.

Tell the students that all the peasants have grown and harvested their crops. The peasants get 10 M&Ms, but they now have to pay for their land and protection so they must give 7 of it to their knight. The knight can keep 2 from each peasant, but the rest must go to the lord. The lord can keep 15 total, but the rest must go to the king.

Afterward, discuss with the students what they experienced. Students then write a 1 page response describing how the Feudal System works and whether or not they think it is fair.