Halloween is coming: Lesson Plan on Fairtrade Chocolate

By Estella Owoimaha-Church

There are two types of moods for teachers on this day:

1. Utter dread - because all your kids, no matter age or grade level, are hopped up off sugar and bouncing off the walls. And if you are a parent, you return home to your child also hopped up off sugar and bouncing off the walls. Fingers crossed that Halloween also does not coincide with a full moon!
2. Melodramatic nerdom - because you take the art of embarrassing both your students and children very seriously, one of the best ways to do this by wearing the most cringiest, horrifying, geeky, or cheeky costume you can find. Sometimes, you work to accomplish all of the above and if you are able to, it was a great halloween.  
   
   

I tend to live somewhere in between these two moods. I am not immune to the dread of 90+ hyperactive kiddos in one day.  But I do look forward to wearing a ridiculously nerdy get-up as I greet my 90+ kiddos at the door. 
For this month’s blog, we wanted to share a themed lesson plan that can be easily adapted or modified for any grade level or content area. More importantly, this lesson plan is a way to embed human rights education in your learning space as well as guide students towards acting locally on a global issue. This lesson will explore fair trade chocolate and its effect in children around the world. 
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Lesson kit: Cocoa Conundrum (Fairtrade Foundation & Fairtrade Schools)

Cocoa conundrum – or how cocoa power means our favourite treat could be under threat. This lesson kit focuses on cocoa, the most important ingredient in chocolate, and a commodity that’s grown almost exclusively by small-scale, family farmers across West Africa, Latin America and Asia. Use in conjunction with ‘My Fairtrade Adventure’ films.” (Fairtrade Schools)

The lesson features a 3-part series of short films which follows young people on this journey to discover the truth behind the cocoa farming industry. The first of these three videos is shared to the left.

A key ingredient for this lesson to work is to have a large chocolate bar (100g). By the end of the lesson, learners will use the visual of the chocolate bar to truly understand how much farmers actually receive for their hard labor. Once the lesson is complete, students will understand the economics of this issue. Farmers - and that term is used loosely since this industry depends on child and slave labor - receive  5% or less of the overall profit compared to the 35% and higher percentages received by manufacturers and retailers. 

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Learning Objectives:

1. Learners examine how and where cocoa is grown, harvested and processed to make chocolate and the different actors involved in the cocoa supply chain
2. Learners increase their understanding of the nature and impact of power imbalances in the cocoa supply chain
3. Learners evaluate whether Fairtrade is making a difference to cocoa farmers

For the full lesson and all related resources are linked here. 

​Similar lessons:

• Share My Lesson: Chocolate and Fair Trade 

Supplemental articles and resources:

• Slave Free Chocolate 
• Darkside of Chocolate Documentary  
• Dark Side of Chocolate Discussion Questions 
• Mars, Nestlé, and Hershey Won't Promise Chocolate is Free from Child Labor 
• Cocoa’s child laborers 
• The Dark and Bitter Truth about your Halloween Chocolate  
• 5 Reasons to Eat Fair Trade Chocolate 
• Your Halloween Candy’s Hidden Ingredient: Child Slave Labor 
• Tricky Treats: Halloween Candy Options 
• Child labour on Nestlé farms: chocolate giant's problems continue 

I strongly encourage you to explore the supplemental list of materials and resources, especially the documentary and the Washington Post piece. These resources do a great job of helping learners to truly connect with other children around the world, building empathy and tolerance in our learners. It is in this way we can explicitly teach youth to think and act on both a local and global scale. I have taught this lesson - or modifications of this lesson - in the past and each time I do, students are floored by what they learn. They begin to question a great deal. For example, why is the industry heavily dependent on the child and slave labor? And how come so few fairtrade options exist? When students begin to consider their purchasing power and impact on children all the way around the world, it's a beautiful thing; it's the beginning of their journey as critical thinkers and defenders of human rights. Below are some tools to create a more project-based lesson, deepen engagement, as well as move learning beyond the classroom and into the real world. 
Ways you and your learners can take action: 

• Fairtrade Schools
• Fair Trade Halloween 
• Darkside of Chocolate Documentary Screening Toolkit 
• Encourage learners to create social media campaigns 
• Encourage learners to purchase fair trade guaranteed candies