Buy nothing day

25 November 2006

Summary information

Age range:	5-7 years
Curriculum links:	Citizenship
Time needed:	15-20 minutes
Group size:	Year group or whole school
Setting:	School assembly hall
Sustainability learning outcome(s):	Pupils will: understand some of the pressures to buy promote consumption that is non-sustainable; know that non-sustainable consumption is damaging to the environment and sometimes to the welfare of people who help to produce or harvest the goods that we buy; know they can make a huge positive impact by joining with others to take simple actions to buy less and buy differently.

Preparation:

Teachers will need to plan ahead to include Buy Nothing Day in the school calendar.

Instead of just focusing on pupils buying nothing for one day, use the day to encourage pupils to think carefully before they buy in their everyday lives and so live more sustainably.

Resources needed:

Access to background information in the Consumption topic box and www.ibuydifferent.org.
Flipchart and pen or interactive white board

Procedure:

Tell children we are going to look at how we can help our environment when we go shopping.
Ask pupils why they think they buy things. Of course we buy some things because we really need them, such as food and clothes. But do we sometimes buy things for other reasons? Here are some ideas they may have:
All their friends have them;
They want something new;
Adverts make them want to buy things.
They enjoy shopping. Looking round the shops and buying things with their family is fun.
Write these on a flipchart or interactive white board.

Tell pupils the problem is that we buy too many things. This means we are using so much of the Earth’s forests, oil, plants, animals and water and other natural resources that there will not be enough for people in the future. People living in this country use far more of the Earth’s resources than most countries. If everyone in the world used as much as some-one in this country, we would need three Earths to support us.
Each of us has to think about what we can do to look after the Earth’s natural resources better. We need to learn to live using the resources that only one Earth can give us, not three. Then there will be enough resources for the future.
Problems like this may seem so big that we can’t do anything about them. But if we think carefully about what we buy and buy less things we can really help.
In the UK children and young people spend a lot of money each year and so are important shoppers. Many young people persuade their parents to buy things too!

Reflection

Now discuss with children some ideas on what they can do to help the environment when they are shopping. Ask them to try out these ideas on Buy Nothing Day, Saturday 25 November.

Only buy what you think you really need.
Don’t buy things with lots of packaging.
Take your own bag when shopping.
Try to avoid plastic bags
Try to choose products in containers that you can use again.
Can you make some things instead of buying them, such as Christmas or birthday cards.
Encourage your family to buy things that are made or grown locally.
Ask your family to buy loose fruit and vegetables and not those that are already in packages.

Write brief notes on these on a flipchart or interactive white board.

Tell children if they carry on taking these simple actions in their everyday lives they will be cutting down on the Earth’s natural resources that they use. If many other people do the same this will make a huge difference and really help us to live using the resources that our one Earth can give us.

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