Field trip, Poetry and Banana Split!

Market Field Trip

Yesterday, we went to BKK market to experience the atmosphere using all of our five senses as well as helping us understand how a market functions and what factors influence marketing a product. It was impressive to see our students willing to ask questions and discover just what makes a market tick, particularly considering how hot it was! They were excellent inquirers and we learnt a lot together.

When we got back to school and cooled down, a great conversation ensued about what we saw and experienced. 

Students were all willing and eager to share what they experienced and we all learnt from each other and added to our general knowledge. 

Poetry

After that discussion we used what we experienced to begin working on poetry using our senses as a means to develop more interesting word choices to captivate our audience. Please take a look at your child's blog over the weekend, as we will put these on our blog tomorrow.

Banana Split 

Later in the day, we played the 'banana split' game. Students had to decide what a fair amount was for each of the different workers to receive from the price of a banana, which began its journey in a plantation in Latin America and completes its journey when it reaches your fruit basket. 

Here is what student decided after careful negotiations were made between groups who represented each worker. It was quite a negotiation as our initial thoughts went over the 30p mark and instead added up to 48p. 

Banana Worker: 8p

Plantation Owner: 7p

Shipper: 7p

Shops and supermarket 3p

Importer and Ripener 5p

         30p

It was very exciting to see and hear that everyone in the class had an opinion on this situation. It was also very interesting to see what students thought when the true distribution was revealed as follows. They were horrified that the banana worker got so little.

Banana Worker: 1p

Plantation Owner: 5p

Shipper: 4p

Shops and supermarket 13p

Importer and Ripener 7p

                                             30p

The next step is to reflect on this and decide what we as individuals can do to help the Banana worker get enough money to meet his basic needs.

We have another activity to do; the orange game; that will also encourage students to think from the perspective of the farmer and to consider ways to guarantee they have their basic needs met.

This will lead in nicely to an inquiry on fair-trade products. If you have any knowledge and experience of fair-trade please encourage your child to converse with you and share their knowledge and experience of fairtrade products with the class.

Here are pictures for you to enjoy!