Rice 4 – Mapping India – Geography

In this lesson the class studies India’s geography and researches some of the crops grown there (both Fairtrade and non Fairtrade).

Curriculum links: KS2 Geography, Art & Design, ICT

Resources needed: Children’s atlases, different materials for pupils to use on their maps, A3 paper, Traidcraft map, access to a data projector or computer room, images for starter activity (image 1, image 2, image 3)

Learning Objective: To recognise geographical features in India
Learning Outcome: Children recognise the geographical features in India and understand why not all the crops are Fairtrade.

Choose one of the 3 photos and show it to the class. In pairs students think of a question they can ask about it. E.g. Where is it? Who are these people? What is happening in the photo? How has Fairtrade helped the people in the picture?

The class pick what they consider to be the best question and then discuss it in pairs/groups.

Main Activity:
Pupils use atlases to draw the outline of India, the seventh largest country in the world, onto paper. Using their atlas and other sources if necessary they mark the following features on their map in pencil

• The 4 major cities in India Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai, Chennai which each have over 10 million occupants each.
• The names of the seas which surround India
• The countries which border onto the land
• The Himalayas
• Haryana Province (where Agrocel, the Fairtrade producer of the rice used in the Geobar is based)

Look at the Traidcraft Map with the class and ask them to identify India. Using www.traidcraft.co.uk the class explores the different producer groups Traidcraft works with in India, including Agrocel. What different products do they grow/make? Where are they based?

Pupils mark the different producer groups on their own maps using little icons of their Fairtrade commodities to indicate where they are in India.

Ask the class to research the different crops grown in India (e.g. tea, rice, cotton), finding out where they are grown. Pupils then mark each crop on their maps and find out whether they can be Fairtrade (www.fairtrade.org.uk ) Are all the crops Fairtrade? If they’re not, why aren’t they? (producers have to meet strict Fairtrade standards in order to receive certification. Look at www.fairtrade.org.uk for more information)

In groups, pupils feedback on the research they did about India. What is life like over there? Why is Fairtrade needed?

Explain to the class that they will decorate their maps using different types of material to represent each feature they have marked on the map (e.g. foil for the seas, different coloured material for the countries bordering India etc) Make a display of the maps in the classroom.

Look at the same photo used for the starter and ask pupils to come up with questions again. Are they different questions to the ones at the beginning? What additional information does the class what to know about India and Fairtrade?