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Lesson plan: Fair Trade
From The Clothes Line online resource
Age group: 7 - 11
Aims:
To help children develop a concept of Fair Trade.
What to do:
Photocopy and cut up the Fair Trade
stories. Now divide the class into groups of four. Give each
group one person's story. (Some groups may have the same story,
depending on class size.) Ask children to read their story and talk
about this person's conditions of work. What is good about them?
What could be improved?
Children should then imagine that they are working for a firm in
your country that sells clothes in high street shops. This firm
wants to make sure that it buys clothes from companies that treat
their workers fairly. As a group, draw up some rules that the shop
could use. You could introduce elements of the list below to them.
As a class discuss what makes trade fair or unfair. How can the
pupils who buy clothes try to make sure that the people who make
them are treated fairly? They might write to companies to show they
care about this issue, or carry out a survey to find out what people
think about Fair Trade and send this to retailers. (As a stimulus
for discussion, you could tell the class that typically out of the
£20 that they pay for a new outfit, only £3 will go to the person
who made it -- sometimes it is much less than this; only a few pence.)
Curriculum links:
| England |
Scotland |
Wales |
| Geography:
- Topical geographical issues; wider geographical context;
interdependence.
English:
- Drama - improvisation and working in role. |
Expressive arts:
- Using media; creating and designing; evaluating and appreciating.
Environmental Studies, Social subjects:
- People and place - developing informed attitudes. |
Geography:
- Topical geographical issues; wider geographical context;
interdependence.
English:
- Drama - improvisation and working in role. |
Further activities on Fair Trade
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The class could invite someone involved in trade or the textiles
industry into the classroom (a shop worker, factory worker,
homeworker) to talk about their working day. Children could
then write 'A day in the life of ...', comparing that person
with one of those involved in the garment industry.
A
'clean clothes' code We
will only buy from manufacturers who:
Pay
reasonable wages to their workers Give
all workers secure jobs Give
all workers at least one day off a week Have
an eight-hour working day, with breaks Do
not force people to work extra hours Pay
people extra money for extra hours worked Make
sure that work places are safe |
Take a look at the
Make Trade Fair website for more information.
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