10/3 - 10/8 Class Theme - Food: Nutrition, Cooking, Meals
Objectives
ALL LEVELS
Please refer to 9/26 - 10/1 Class Theme - Food: Shopping & Restaurants for a complete list of objectives. If your class has already covered basic restaurant and shopping vocabulary, please introduce cooking vocabulary (including measurements) and nutrition (including reading labels) this week.
INTERMEDIATE (LEVEL 2 OR L3)
This may be a good point to talk about quantities and count vs. non-count nouns , in terms of food. For example, we can say "I'd like two apples" -- apples can be counted; but we have to say "I'd like some milk" -- milk can't be singular or plural (it can't be counted). See online grammatical explanations for details and examples.
Web Resources
Please see 9/26 - 10/1 Class Theme - Food: Shopping & Restaurants for additional (just posted!) activities on grocery shopping and restaurants.
BEGINNING (LEVEL 1 OR L2)
- Dave's ESL cafe has another helpful list of food vocabulary:
http://www.eslcafe.com/ideas/sefer.cgi?display:1028675430-25901.txt - Here is a neat way to reinforce the alphabet AND learn food vocabulary:
http://members.tripod.com/~ESL4Kids/games/grocery.html
I'm sure many of you have played this game in some form or another. The
format is: "I'm going to the supermarket and I'm going to buy some apples".
The next person says "I'm going to the supermarket and I'm going to buy
some apples and some bananas", the next person says "I'm going to the
supermarket and I'm going to buy apples, bananas, and chocolate milk"
and so forth.
INTERMEDIATE (LEVEL 2 OR L3)
- About.com has a neat page where they have a recipe and a corresponding suggested lesson plan for ESL teachers:
http://esl.about.com/od/readinglessonplans/r/r_chickenkiev.htm
You can also look for some recipes at different websites like: www.vegetariantimes.com and try to adapt the activity using different recipes, or get students to share their own recipes or ask them how to prepare some dishes, like cereal, pupusas, tamales, pancakes, or whatever.
ADVANCED (LEVEL 3 OR L4)
- Although this Quiz on Food Idioms is intended to be taken online, it's a good reminder of some common expressions that your students may not know.
- This printable, color .pdf file of the New Food Pyramid includes an explanatory page. Good reading practice and starting point for discussion of eating habits, food in different cultures, etc.
Resources at Kestrel Heights
Please look on the bookshelf, next to the Class Attendance Notebooks.
Levels 1-3
- Celebrate la cocina hispana: Healthy Hispanic Recipes - A small paperback cookbook with recipes translated into English and Spanish. Should be easy to copy facing pages so that you can give students English and Spanish versions of the same recipe. Recipes include nutrition information.
- Nutrition Handouts - In blue folder labeled "Food & Nutrition"
- La nueva etiqueta de comida - Nutrition Label in English with Spanish explanations of the portions, nutrients, etc. There is also a version entirely in English.
- 101 Supermarket Tips - Tricky facts about the contents of snacks, drinks, and breakfast items. A portion of this could be a good reading exercise for Level 3.
- Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham includes many chants about food, including:
- #28, The Chocolate Cake Song
- #31, Pizza Chant
- #33, Hamburger Chant
- #37, Fast Food
- #44, Fresh Fish
- #45, Pete Eats Meat
- Also on the bookshelf, Speaking of Survival, a smaller
blue book by Daniel Freeman, has some illustrated dialogues and
follow-up activities about Shopping for Food (p. 148). - Survival English: English Through Conversation emphasizes
the verbs "to have" and "to need" in its Food chapter (p. 141). It also
provides worksheets for students to practice answering questions "Does
he like... /Do you like..." etc. and to practice making nouns plural.
Very good for Level 1.
Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary
Food pages in the red OPD:
Produce: 34-35
Meat: 36
Containers of food.: 37
Dairy products: 38
Non perishables: 39
Grocery store nouns: 40
Grocery store verbs: 41
Kitchen words: 42
Restaurant vocab: 43
Breakfast, lunch and dinner menus: 44-45
Cooking verbs: 46-47
Weights and measures: 101
More Games, Activities, Ideas
- Here is another great resource for classroom ideas that you can use anytime: http://www.eslflow.com/
- Have students classify foods as vegetables, fruits, meats, grains, etc. and talk about which foods are healthy and which are not.
- Try bringing in some different types of food for students to sample, and talk about ways to describe food. You could buy a bag of peanuts, a bag of m&m’s, chop up an apple, or whatever and talk about words like “salty/savory”, “sweet”, “crunchy,” “tart”, “juicy” etc. You wouldn’t have to buy very many things if you give every like 2 m&ms etc.
- An idea, if you have some time and resources, would be to bring some ingredients in for a simple recipe, have students break into groups, and then have them work together to make the recipe. You could have different recipes for each group, so that everyone could try one another's. Recipes could be: PB&J or other sandwich, salad, etc.





