11-14 YEARS (KEY STAGE 3)
LESSON 13: THE GIFT OF GIVING (GEOGRAPHY, PHSE)
OBJECTIVE
BACKGROUND
To understand your position as a consumer and to evaluate what effect the gifts you choose will have.
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The Gift of Giving challenge comprises two sections: the power that the consumer has in
influencing company decisions and how you value a present. The aim of this lesson is to help
students reflect on why they give and receive presents, to appreciate their position as a consumer
and to evaluate what their gift choices will mean for others.
PROCESS
Part 1 – Father Christmas or Father China?
True or False exercise:
 Enough rubbish is thrown away over the Christmas period to fill 400,000 double-decker buses.
 With all the wrapping paper used over Christmas you could wrap up the island of Guernsey.
 10% of Christmas presents will be broken by New Year’s Day.
 80% of the toys sold worldwide are made in China.
 The world’s largest Christmas present was the Statue of Liberty.
All answers are true. As a class discuss each point and the implications they have on how we can live more sustainability.
 The ‘Barbie Doll’ exercise is printed on A2 sheets and one given to groups of 4 or 5 students. Half the students are
given a red pen and half the students are given a green pen. Students with the red pen are asked to discuss how each
of the factors are linked to each other. They don’t write any ideas down as the students with the green pens listen to
the discussion without speaking and write down the other students’ ideas and drawing arrows to show the links. The
students then change roles. Students feedback their ideas in a class discussion.
 Students write the factors in a chain to show the relationship between them:
• Answer: Oil from the Persian Gulf is used to make plastic > plastic from Taiwan is sent to the Chinese doll factory
> Mattel, an American manufacturing company, makes Barbie dolls in China > A 17-year-old girl works in a
Chinese factory making the Barbie dolls using a Japanese, toy-making machine > the 17-year-old girl is paid 10p
for making the Barbie doll > the Barbie doll is sent to Tesco in the UK > an advert for Barbie is shown on TV > a 6year-old girl wants the Barbie > her 30-year-old Father pays £9.99 to buy her the Barbie.
Points to discuss:
 What impact does sourcing materials and buying products from different countries have on sustainability?
 Is it better to buy ‘Made in the UK’?
 Why is the export of materials very important for a country?
 Who is making the most money from the Barbie doll?
 Do you think the factory girl is paid enough? Consider the currency differences, skills of the worker, working conditions
of the factory, the amount in comparison to the final cost of the product.
 Why does the girl in the UK want the Barbie?
 Who is the consumer?
 What is the doll made of and what will happen to the doll when it is no longer wanted? What are all the options?
 What power does the consumer have in influencing how products are made?
 How does the consumer influence other lives?
CONTINUED ON NEW SHEET…
THE GIFT OF GIVING CONTINUED…
If a consumer does not agree with how a company works or manufactures it’s products or treats its employees, what
can the consumer do?
 If demand decreases for the Barbie, how will this affect the 17-year-old girl in China?
 What is different about the concept of fair trade products?
 What is different about products that are sustainable?
The Guardian article regarding Christmas toys from China can be used for further discussion. Please edit the article
accordingly for your class.

Part 2 – What do I have to offer?
 Students think of the best gift they have ever received. Think about: who gave it to you, when did they give it to you
and why. Why was it such a good gift?
 Students think of the worst gift they ever received. Think about: who gave it to you and when and why and why was it
not such a good gift?
 Share with students the best and worst gifts you received and why they were so great and not so great.
 As a class list the reasons why we give gifts at Christmas and the different ways in which we can measure their value.
 Students are split into groups of 4/5 and within each group half the students are letter A and the other half letter B.
Written on large A1 or A2 sheets of paper are one of the following questions:
• You have £10 to buy your Mum, Dad, brother or sister a present, what can you buy them?
• You have 2 hours with your Grandmother, Grandfather or someone older than you, what could you do to help?
• What could you make a friend to give as a gift?
• What skill do you have to share or teach someone else?
• If you had £40 what could buy for someone as a gift?
• If you have £20 to give but your family and friends have decided not give presents this festive season what could
you do with the £20?
A different question is placed with each group. Students have a few minutes to discuss and write their ideas on the paper.
They then change group, all the As move clockwise to the next group and all the Bs move anticlockwise to the next
question. They repeat the exercise and add their ideas to the sheet of paper. In this way, students work as different groups
for each question and all students consider each question. When students arrive back to their original question they can
look at the added answers and one student from each group can feedback the class ideas in a class discussion.
 As a reflection exercise students consider their thoughts on giving this festive season and identify and list three people
they would like to give a gift to, and what they can give them which:
• does not involve buying a present; or
• would turn that present into the best the receiver has ever had!
LESSON SUCCESS
 Part 1 – Students appreciate their impact as a consumer and look into sustainable Christmas presents. Students
understand that buying from other countries has a “cost” in terms of the environment but there is also a “social gain”
for the person who is making it in their county if that person is paid properly for their efforts.
 Part 2 – Students identify 3 gifts they can give this Christmas that take into account the reasons that make a gift “the
best”. A great gift is often attached to an emotion – your dream bike etc – so the gift could be a service/skill-share
rather than an object. However if it is an object, why is that object so important, what will it enable within the receiver?
DEVELOPMENT
As a class evaluate the skills you have to give as a gift and offer a gift to a primary school class or old-persons home.