Resources

Oxfam's catalogue for schools

Children and diversity

Countries and continents

Disasters and emergencies

Food, trade and globalisation

Comic Relief 2005

Fair Trade Resources

The Coffee Chain Game

Looking behind the logo

The clothes line

Get global

Go bananas

Making a meal of it

Peace and conflict

Rights and social justice

Sustainability

Water

Welsh language

Ideas for taking the work further

From the Go Bananas! online resource

Art

• Close observation. How many different colours are there in a single banana? In a bunch/several bunches? Try drawing a banana from different angles.

• A class of infants in Hackney constructed a banana tree from paper and card.

Cookery

• Make banana cake (recipe on Cool Planet for Children). Try Caribbean recipes using cooked green bananas and plantains.

Drama

• A group of seven-year-olds decided to enact the journey of the banana in an improvised role-play (with costumes), ending up with a mathematics exercise about pricing bananas.

Geography

• Look at the Peters projection map from the Mapping it Out lesson. How does it differ from more commonly seen map projections (like Mercator)? What is the overall effect of this type of projection? Investigate the background to the projection.

History

• An Islington primary teacher followed work on bananas by looking at the history of the Caribbean, how it was colonised by the British, and the trade links between the slave trade and plantations.

Local studies

• Survey local shops/ markets. How many brands of banana are available in the shops in your area? Where do the bananas come from?

Mathematics

• Compare prices of bananas in markets /shops/supermarkets. How do prices differ? What reasons might there be for this? How much do bananas cost individually? Per kilo? How much do single bananas weigh? How much difference is there between the smallest and the largest?

Science

• An Islington primary school grew a banana tree, closely observing and recording its growth.

• Study the conditions for bananas ripening/decaying. Observe changes in appearance, texture, taste. Why does banana flesh discolour, once outside its skin? Can this be prevented?

Technology

• Obtain a banana box from a local shop or market. How is it made? How many bananas can it hold? How can the bananas be packed? How heavy is a full box? How much information is found on the box?

• Look at banana labels/boxes. What sort of design are used? Design your own label.

   

  From the Go Bananas! online resource