Have a tray of fruits and vegetables common to the area in which you are teaching. Ask students to name (in English!) as many foods as possible. Write these words on the board as they are said. Lead students to identify them also as fruit or vegetables.
After all foods on the tray are identified, make a quick game of these words. Attach a "fruit sign to one wall and a "vegetable" sign to the opposite wall. Call out a word and ask student to stand next to the correct sign.
If you are teaching ESL (students from more than one country), you may also engage the students in talking about whether or not these foods are in their country.
Introduce the foods you have brought and the ones mentioned by the students. If students mention something you do not have, draw a simple sketch on the board. A general rule of thumb is to introduce three or four, then review them. Introduce another three or four, then review what you have.
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Note: Ideally, you would divide this vocabulary, teaching fruits in one session and vegetables in another. But you most likely will not have the luxury of this much time. |
Since available foods will vary, depending upon location, Section #A (Vocabulary) of the Student Study Guide is being left blank. After you distribute the Student Study Guides to each student, ask them to copy these words from the board. Briefly take a poll (show of hands) with regard to likes and dislikes of food. Body language will convey meaning here!
!!!More Advanced!!!
Use an overhead projector plus Handout #1 to introduce the "Yum! Yuk!" jazz chant. You read through once while students listen - then have students join you.
The stressed words are emphasized below to let you know where to snap your fingers in this jazz chant!
[Name of vegetable or fruit].
YUM!
I LIKE __________.
YES, I do!
[Name of vegetable or fruit].
YUK!
I DON'T like ____________.
NO, I don't.
HOW about YOU?
!!!More Advanced!!!
For more advanced students, have a much longer and less common list of foods. (Check seed catalogs for pictures in vivid color!) Erase the board after the students have copied the words in #A of the Student Study Guide. Cover the food with the cloth once more. Ask the students-in small groups-to make a list of all the food items they can remember. (It is always fun to have a small prize for the winning group-a piece of gum or, in this case, a piece of fruit!) If fruits are readily available and cheap enough, you might consider having a small piece of fruit for everyone!!!
1 Divide the class into small groups of three. Equally divide the foods you brought among the small groups. Ask that each person have a turn using the "Yum! Yuk!" chant to express food likes and dislikes. Demonstrate what students are to do. Rotate the food item sets until each group has identified all that you have.
!!!More Advanced!!!
More advanced students may manipulate vegetables and/or fruits to learn/review prepositions of place. Write the following locatives on the board for students to copy and practice using in small groups:
next to in front of
between on/to the right/left of
behind under/over
2 Play an adaptation of "Musical Chairs" with these same foods. But make certain that you have one less food item than you have students. Either while seated or standing in a circle, have students pass the food items from left to right. When the taped music stops, you call out the name of one of the fruits or vegetables. The person holding this food item must hold it up for all to see. Ask the whole class what this is.
1 If you have grocery store flyers, divide into small groups and issue each group a flyer. Ask each group to make a grocery list of all they can buy for fifteen dollars. They all must agree on the items they buy. See who can buy the most food for fifteen dollars.
Better still . . . plan a field trip to the supermarket. For this activity, give each group a grocery list and ask them to check the prices. After reporting back to the class, the groups are given a dollar amount. Their task at this point is to choose what they can "afford" to buy.
!!!More Advanced!!!
More advanced students can find out a range of prices for a single item, then report back to the class what is cheaper/cheapest and more expensive/most expensive.
2 Divide students into small groups. Ask students to draw a picture of their favorite fruit or vegetable. Then show this picture to the group. See if the group can name the fruit or vegetable. Urge students to describe in words also if their choice is not quickly identified.
3 Conduct a taste test with five commonly eaten food items wherever you are. Put a blindfold on the students (or ask that they close their eyes and not "peek"). Give each student a small plate, napkin, or leaf on which you have placed a small sample of five foods. Ask them to take a bite of each food item and to think about each one.
When all have tasted, take away the food. Ask students to remove their blindfolds - or open their eyes. Then ask that they make a list of the foods they can identify. See who gets all five!
4 Ask students in small groups to tell (1) how many meals people eat everyday in their country; (2) what is a typical food to eat (what people usually eat) for each meal. (To avoid confusion, write these assignments on the board one at a time. In other words, write #1. Let students respond to #1. Then write #2, etc.) (3) What foods you cook if special friends or family come to your house to eat a meal? Tell your group what is "on the menu." (In the U.S., What's on the menu? = What food is cooking? What will we eat today?)
For effective second language instruction, the whole-class processing of small group discussion is as important as the set-up for an activity. This processing makes discussion more purposeful and gives an added dimension of real-life importance to the sharing in small groups.
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