Elementary School

• Global Exchange

  Fair Trade Cocoa Curriculum and Online Resource for Educators
  
  Elementary School

  Kids love chocolate! Stimulate elementary school students’ hunger for learning with Global Exchange’s Fair Trade cocoa curriculum, a clever multi-dimensional classroom resource that can be adapted into lesson plans satisfying a variety of standards, including social sciences, language arts, and math. The curriculum addresses social justice issues such as the significance of the difference between Fair Trade and market prices for cocoa, as well as modern child slavery in the cocoa fields. Global Exchange also invites you to join Sweet Smarts, its online group of educators dedicated to teaching about Fair Trade!

• Zapizapu Crosses the Sea: A story about being fair

  By Diane Abad Vergara. Available from Trafford Publishing.
  
  The script and colorful illustrations of this children’s book work together to simplify the concept of international trade and personify those involved around the world from grower to consumer. In the story we discover that the simple yet important concept of ‘playing fair’ is important for children and grown ups alike.

• TrainsFair USA’s FOCUS ON FAIR TRADE

  Grades K through 12

  Introduce students to Fair Trade and help them become educated global citizens! TransFair’s new curriculum is divided into three units for different age groups. Each unit highlights our global interdependence by focusing on three different Fair Trade foods: Chocolate Explorers (K-2), Banana Bonanza (3-6), and Coffee Connections (7-12). Each unit includes lesson plans with ideas for accessible, interactive activities on topics ranging from geography, economics, social studies, history, environmental studies, and marketing. Also includes a comprehensive list of additional resources and recommended links.

Middle and High School

• ‘A Taste of Slavery - Chocolate’s Bitter Ingredient: Slavery in the Cocoa Trade’

  Middle or High School

  A comprehensive lesson and set of interactive online resources about child slavery in the cocoa industry assembled by Pennsylvanian public school teacher James Forrester.

• Equal Exchange WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS

  Grades 4-9

  The Equal Exchange curriculum resources help students begin to build a just and sustainable future, and understand the links between our personal actions and life for all on this planet. These curriculum materials have been designed to take your students from passive consumers to active citizens who make a difference in the world. The Equal Exchange curriculum consists of a wide variety of participatory activities, including visual, auditory and inquiry learning. The curriculum consists of four units: “Our Choices Matter”, “Understanding Fair Trade”, “Understanding Cooperatives”, and ” Make a Difference.” Educators may choose one or two lessons, or all four — depending on time available.

• Heifer International GET IT!®
  
  Global Education To Improve Tomorrow ‘Economic Links between Latin America and the USA’
  
  Middle and High School Students

  GET IT! is a curriculum-based global education and service learning program that teaches students and teachers about sustainable solutions to world hunger and poverty. The curriculum engages students as investigative journalists to research, write about, and act on issues surrounding consumer choices and international trade. Students learn how to ask questions, think critically, and communicate what they learn. By writing and circulating stories based on their research, students get hands-on experience in spreading awareness about consumer issues. Curriculum focuses on three products: bananas, flowers, and coffee. One lesson highlights a Fair Trade coffee cooperative in Guatemala.

• TrainsFair USA’s FOCUS ON FAIR TRADE

  Grades K through 12

  Introduce students to Fair Trade and help them become educated global citizens! TransFair’s new curriculum is divided into three units for different age groups. Each unit highlights our global interdependence by focusing on three different Fair Trade foods: Chocolate Explorers (K-2), Banana Bonanza (3-6), and Coffee Connections (7-12). Each unit includes lesson plans with ideas for accessible, interactive activities on topics ranging from geography, economics, social studies, history, environmental studies, and marketing. Also includes a comprehensive list of additional resources and recommended links.

• Field Study Handbook: Guide to Internships in Coffee-Producing Communities

  High School and College
  
  The Community Agroecology Network (CAN) and Oxfam America collaborated to publish a new resource for students and teachers at universities and high schools across the US. This multi-purpose handbook engages students in preparation for field internships in CAN’s partner communities in Central America and Mexico, as well as providing enrichment activities, comprehensive references, and follow-up resources. The handbook can also be adapted for use by anyone interested in teaching and learning about Fair Trade coffee, international trade, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and community development.

• “Bananas Unpeeled: The Hidden Costs of Banana Production and Trade”

  Teachers’ Guide and online curriculum includes suggestions for engaging learning activities. Resources were designed to complement the film Banana Split (2002) which gives an excellent overview of the banana’s rise to become one of America’s staple foods and the simultaneous history of banana farmers coming to operate under oppressive conditions. Promotes a model of smallholder banana production as a potential means for international economic development. Mentions Fair Trade Certification - produced in Canada. Order film.

• PaPaPaa Curriculum - Divine Chocolate and Comic Relief

  Upper Elementary, Middle school - Ages 9-11, 11-14
  
  Comprehensive curriculum focuses on Fair Trade cocoa and Ghana, from Divine Chocolate, and highlights Kuapa Kokoo cooperative of cocoa farmers. Photos available online. Free to download. Curriculum is UK-focused.

• Growing Bananas
  
  

  Elementary - 3rd grade and up
  
  Students grow bananas from scrap paper and discover how difficult life can be for banana growers in the Caribbean – and how Fairtrade can give them a better deal. A whole class trading game with background information including photos of the production process.

• CAFOD Fair Trade Resources for Schools - Fair Trade: Responsible Consumer

  In this set of lesson plans, students examine the role of the consumer, the local, national and global impact of consumer behavior, and explore how consumer power can change the lives of people in other countries. Includes lesson plan: Buy a banana – who’s affected?