Because it's the season for giving....
Updated for 2007
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/12/24/a-greener-christmas-tree/#more-7739
Do a SURVEY of toy origins. There was a useful story in many papers and news archive sites in November of 2006 when the Emma Maersk docked in Felixstowe, bringing with it thousands of tonnes of toys: the ship that brought us our Christmas.
1. Of which country is this the flag (spot the Christmas link) ?
What is the capital of this country _________________________
What is the currency used in this country ? _____________________
Name the countries which share a border with this country.__________________________
2. Think of all the things that you buy especially for Christmas and which are then thrown away immediately afterwards, or during the day itself.
Make a list of these. Which particular resource is being wasted ?
e.g. Wrapping paper = Paper being wasted
Christmas Tree = Takes several years to grow, and is thrown out on January 6th
3. The key to reducing waste is to follow the advice of the 3 R’s:
REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE
How could you do this for some of the things mentioned in question 2 ?
e. g: Instead of throwing away Christmas cards, you could cut off the image on the front of the card, and turn them into gift tags for next Christmas.
Make your own crackers with newspaper & a toilet roll holder… just say bang as you pull them...
4. In which modern-day country is Bethlehem ? ____________
5. Look in the Atlas for placenames which have a festive connection e.g. there is a place called Cold Christmas near Hertford
6. A Christmas tree is given as a gift to Britain every year by Norway, and stands in Trafalgar Square. Research the following answers:
i) What is the capital of Norway ? __________
ii) Roughly how many times larger is the population of the UK than that of Norway ? _________________
iii) Why does Norway send a Christmas tree every year ? ___________________________________
HOMEWORK (well, it is Christmas....)
Keep a record of the original country of origin of any presents: look for ‘Made in….’ labels. Do the same for any Christmas goodies e.g. why is it the only time of year we buy dates ?
An extension is to give the students a political map of Europe, and label the countries. They have to plan a route for Santa Claus, starting in Iceland, he has to visit all the countries without visiting the same country twice and without the route crossing, and finish up back in Iceland in time for a cup of cocoa and bed. Try it! Now even harder thanks to the 10 new members who've expanded Santa's route.
We also do a lesson on HOMELESSNESS each year, as we also do a collection for Crisis at Christmas. There was a useful CRISIS at CHRISTMAS menu in my paper today.
Can you beat this for Christmas lights ? Apologies for quality - it was dark... I'll have to go on a hunt this year to find another.
Visit the HOUSEBLINGERS site.
DEBATE: Should Christmas lights be banned to slow down the onset of Global Warming....
IDEAS FOR 2006/7
1. Why not try to get an annotated Christmas Card from each pupil...
Instead of just a picture of the 3 Kings, get them to annotate them with appropriate physical or human geographical connections... They can do this over Christmas and bring it back
Ideas of things to label:
Landscape features
People: forced migration...
Weather conditions & precipitation types - possible nivation in the hollows...
2. Adaptation of an idea from a blog I found the other week.
The blog had some images of people holding up items in front of the real thing, and they were superimposed in front of them. The project was apparently called
Get pupils to take a picture which appears to incorporate an image from a Christmas Card in the real landscape. It could be a Christmas tree superimposed on a view... Here are a few (non Christmassy) examples.
3. PLAY SOME GEOGAMES - have a go at the GeographyCup (I've found that using Mozilla Firefox gets round a lot of the filtering issues at my school....) - see if you can make a list of all the sites that are filtered out...
4. Last year, there was some discussion over the SUSTAINABILITY and eco-credentials of REAL vs ARTIFICIAL trees. This was followed up in the paper this weekend by a comparison of the two types.
OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF!
Tony Cassidy's ideas at http://www.radicalgeography.co.uk/xmasgeog.html
An old favourite: Cranberry harvest at SLN http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/CranberryHarvest.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6188808.stm - interesting BBC news report
Thanks to Val Vannet for her Interactive Advent Calendar for 2006, plus Gone Underground for her Christmas Flash games
And as for me ?
Well I'll be showing 'Cars' on the IWB... (only joking...)
