Why use this tool?

Climate Change has been disproportionately affecting certain localities, regions, countries, population groups and communities already. This fosters a need for solidarity and repair that takes into account the various manifestations of climate impacts in different contexts and for different population groups. One aspect of re-imagining solidarity can be fueled by increasing our intergenerational understanding, and developing our curiosity to learn about history. This concerns both history in general, to avoid repeating past mistakes and to do better in the future, and history of individuals, learning about members of our own local communities, and beyond, to strengthen social bonds. 

Activities in this Tool

Activity 5.3.1: Creating an intergenerational garmen

Activity 5.3.2. Creating learning exchanges between schools

Activity 5.3.1: Creating an intergenerational garment

Overview 

The learners are made aware of the problematic sides of fast fashion. They then approach the problem with creativity and connection by designing and sewing an intergenerational garment. The learners collect three pieces of garment, one from their own closet, one from an adult in their family/community, and one from a senior in their family/community, and redesign these into a “new” intergenerational garment. With each garment the learners collect a story, to highlight the value of taking care of our clothes, as a representation of the limited resources we have. 

Curriculum linkage

  • Arts, Language & Literature, Civics & Social Studies, History, Mathematics

Competences built

  • Collaboration, accountability, care, community building, originality

Basic info

  • Age range: 6+ 
  • Duration: 2-6h
  • Group size: 30 
  • Level of difficulty: Intermediate-advanced
  • Materials/space required: needle and thread and/or sewing machines
  • Location: arts and crafts space 
  • Engagement of external stakeholders: yes, adults and elders in the learners family/local communities

Prep Work

  • Find a garment that means something to you personally.

Competences/activities to practice first by the teacher: 

  • Sewing

Levels/Steps  in the activity 

  1. The stories of garments
  2. Collect garments and stories
  3. Sew an intergenerational garment
  4. Show the intergenerational garments 

Step 1: The stories of garments

  1. Map the learners consumption patterns by asking them to raise their hand if they:
    • bought a new garment this year
    • bought a new garment this month
    • bought a new garment this week
    • ever bought a garment second-hand hand
    • ever got a garment handed down
    • ever repaired a garment
    • ever had someone repair a garment for them
    • ever received a handmade garment
    • ever sewed a garment themselves

Introduce the challenge of fast fashion and how it impacts people and the planet, including environmental impacts and exploitation of workers, using concrete examples, such as:

    • Many workers work 16 hours every day, make very little money, and face retaliation for refusing to work overtime.
    • Garment workers also labor in unsafe conditions, including windowless spaces, dangerously high temperatures, violent managers, and harmful chemical exposure. In 2013 an eight-story building that housed several garment factories in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed and killed some 1,100 laborers and injured thousands more.
    • The fashion industry as a whole is responsible for 10 percent of carbon emissions, uses large quantities of water, and employs dyes and chemicals that pollute the environment.
    • The clothing ends up in landfills around the world, including in the so-called “clothing graveyard” in the Atacama Desert, Chile.Examples from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/art/fast-fashion
  2. Wear a garment you really love and share a little story about why this garment is important to you and how/by whom it was made. 
  3. Ask the learners what makes a garment important to them. Do they know how or by whom their garment was made? Invite the learners to respond to the questions in small groups. Invite a learner from each group to share something from the conversation. When you invite the learners to share, emphasize that becoming aware of the ethical aspects of fashion can be very troubling, and we do not judge each other for what we are wearing. 
  4. Introduce the task of making an intergenerational garment. Highlight how making something new out of something old/existing is one way to address the problem of fast fashion in a fun and creative way by building practical skills that can empower us to make/mend our own clothes. By making a garment and realizing how much effort is required, we learn to appreciate the work invested in every piece of garment. Give the learners an assignment to collect: 
    • a garment from their own closet
    • a garment from an adult they know and care about
    • a garment from a senior they know and care about
    • a real story about each of the garments told by themselves, the adult and the senior

Step 2: Collect stories and garment

  1. The learners collect the garments and stories at home. You can give them some questions they can ask the storytellers to help them tell their story, such as:
    • What makes this garment special to you?
    • What does this garment say about you?  
    • How/where/when/by whom was this garment made?
  2. The learner writes the stories down, including their own.

Step 3: Sew an intergenerational garment

  1. The learners need to make a design for their intergenerational garment. You can let them brainstorm in groups and draw their designs individually.
  2. If the designs are complicated, the learners may need to make patterns out of paper, and draw the patterns onto the garments before starting to cut the garments.
  3. Cut the garments into new shapes to fit the design.
  4. Use pins to attach the new shapes together so they match the design.
  5. Sew the shapes together by hand using needle and thread, or by using a sewing machine, depending on the skill level of the learners and the availability of machines.

Step 3: Show the intergenerational garment

  1. You can organize a fashion show or another kind of exhibition for the rest of the school to show off the intergenerational garments. Include the stories in the show/exhibition. 
  2. If you make an exhibition, you could include a whole figure mirror with the text “here you see the world’s most sustainable garment” (meaning the one you already got). 
  3. The learners can make a poster with the text “How old are the garments you are wearing right now?” and a line below with numbers from 0 to 20 + older. Place a marker next to the poster so other learners can mark the age of what they are wearing.

Dos and Don’ts 

Do 

  • Check with parents that they are OK with donating garments to this project. 

Don’t

  • Don’t force learners to show their garments on a catwalk if they don’t feel like it.
  • Don’t judge/shame learners for buying or wearing fast fashion.  

Adaptations

Use differentiated tools. Provide large-handled scissors, fabric clips instead of pins, or pre-threaded needles for learners with fine motor difficulties. If sewing is too complex, allow use of fabric glue or safety pins.

We always invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging.

References

This activity was designed by Climate Creativity. 

Download the Activity Card here

Activity 5.3.2. Creating learning exchanges between schools

Overview 

Learning exchanges can take place between schools in urban/rural areas, city centre/periphery, Global North/Global South. They can take the form of sharing personal stories, the progress of school projects to enhance climate resilience and regeneration, and/or visions of the future. They could lead to some joint projects/ actions. This activity helps to open up discussion on what solidarity can mean between different learners of different schools. 

Curriculum linkage

  • Language & Literature geography, history, 

Competences built

  • Perspective-taking, accountability, care, societal agency, collaboration, self-reflection, empathy

 Basic info

  • Age range: 7+
  • Duration: From one session online (45-60 minutes) to a year long project
  • Group size: Open
  • Level of difficulty: Intermediate 
  • Materials/space required: It depends on the design of the project. You could need: an internet connection, a large screen, a good sound system. 
  • Location: Indoors 
  • Engagement of external stakeholders: Yes. There needs to be an established collaboration with another school, organization or university in context, country, region that is different from that of the school. 

Prep Work

  • Establish collaboration
  • Learn about the context in which the other school, organization or university is located 
  • Define the objectives of the project: from getting a glimpse of different ways of being affected by and responding to climate change, to planning a collaborative project to build climate resilience. 
  • Anticipating learners’ possible biases about the other context, and preparing information for them to have beforehand. 

Competences/activities to practice first by the teacher: 

  • Non-violent communication 
  • Activities under competence area 3 ‘Embracing values that sustain the lives of all living beings’. 
  • Activities under Competence Area 4 ‘Opening up to diverse climate-resilient and regenerative futures’ could be practiced beforehand or together with the partner

Levels in the activity 

  1. Short exploration 
  2. Regular exchanges 
  3. Collaborative projects

Level 1: Short exploration

Steps

  1. Prepare the online meeting with the teacher/educator from the other school, organisation or university.  
  2. During preparation, and in discussion with your partner, clarify expectations for the learning exchange. Questions to jointly address are: (1) what will be the format of this exchange (e.g. short exploration, collaborative project), (2) what do we want to achieve in terms of learning goals, and in relation to climate resilience, (3) regarding climate resilience, how much do we know about the current impacts of climate change in each other’s local context and how much do we expect children to research and learn, which climate event/experience can we safely share about, which local climate project implemented of a project could we present, could we discuss local visions of a climate-resilient, biodiverse, connected, caring and creative world, how to best support  children in discussing those visions. 
  3. Before engaging with learners from the other school, university or organization, explain expectations for the exchange, and discuss principles for curious and respectful communication. Allow time to address the questions and discuss the biases that some children may have. 
  4. Make sure that tech works beforehand and have back up plans in case connection is unstable or cut.
  5. Prepare each session with sets of activities and allow ample time for exchanges between learners. One possible agenda for a 2-hour session would be (1) short introduction by each teacher of their country, school and class, (2) inviting a few learners from each school to share how their environment is and what are the environmental issues they have been witnessing and have learnt about, (3) inviting a few learners from each schools to share about the solutions that they have implemented or are being implemented in their village/city to address the ecological crisis, (4) inviting a few learners to reflect on new activities they would like to implement, as they learn from other experiences, or of new visions that they would like to share, explore and/or bring to life as a result of the exchange. This possible agenda can be used both for a short exploratory session and for longer-term regular exchanges and  collaborative projects. 
  6. A follow up call can be organized to discuss what the outcomes of the exploratory session have been for each school, and reflect on both the challenges and opportunities that the exploratory exchange has brought to life. 
  7. Provide opportunities for learners to stay in contact with each other if they wish to.  

Level 2: Regular Exchanges

  1. Several of the activities under Competence Area 4 ‘Opening up to diverse climate-resilient and regenerative futures’ can be practiced together with learners from the other school, organization or university. It will greatly increase the diversity of thoughts and experiences that would go into exploring different regenerative futures, and make the exercises more exciting. 
  2. Check which parts of the activities you would like to do together and which parts would be easier to do separately because of technical constraints. The different activity steps can also be implemented over a number of days/ weeks.
  3. Ensure that children have the opportunity to reflect on the exchanges through journaling or short debriefing sessions at the end of each call. Those reflection times can also help surface specific emotions or difficulties that may need to be addressed. 

Level 3: Collaborative Projects      

  1. Different collaborative projects can be implemented as part of a learning exchange collaboration. Those collaborative projects can include the running of local climate resilience projects in parallel, in line with activities listed in tool 5.2. ‘Taking local action for climate-resilience,’ for instance. They can focus on a project implemented by one of the partners only, with learners from the other partner school, organization or university, following the project and contributing to it in response to specific invitations or requests. 
  2. Documenting local projects with an abundance of both photos and videos can help foster engagement and excitement for both groups. 

Dos and Don’ts 

Do

  • Acquire a good understanding of the cultural, economic, social, and political context in which the partner school, organization or university operates. 
  • Ensure that there is open and clear communication with the other teacher and/or educator so that possible issues regarding intercultural communication can be brought up. 
  • Take some time to learn your partner before engaging in collaborative projects. The 3 levels of implementation of this tool can be implemented in sequence. 

Don’t

  • Don’t assume that a partner school, organization, or university located in a marginalized area and/or in the Global South needs your knowledge, expertise or other resources. 
  • Don’t design a collaborative project for a partner school, organization, university located in a marginalized area and/ or in the Global South. Only consider a collaborative project focusing on a partner school, organization, or university located in a marginalized area and/or in the Global South if there is a clear request. Only provide support if it is asked for and the way it is asked for. 

Adaptations

We always invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging. 

If you anticipate that your learners will have difficulty speaking up spontaneously, you may want to invite them to prepare a presentation, including in groups, before they first meet with learners in the other school or university. 

If real-time meetings are an issue because of technological limitations at either end, consider recording short videos prepared in advance, or sending out letters, pictures and artworks

If your learners would like to directly engage with each other, consider setting up some small working groups with specific activities to work on together, and shared accountability for respectful intercultural exchanges.

It is possible to practice many activities under Competence Area 4 ‘Opening up to diverse climate-resilient and regenerative futures’ as joint activities with another school, organisation or university, through regular exchanges. 

References

This activity was designed by One Resilient Earth. 

Download the Activity Card here