Lesson Plan: Food

This is a lesson plan I have created for my 3rd year "Conocimento del Medio" (science) class. The resources I listed are very helpful, especially for ESL students and I highly recommend them if you need to write a lesson plan. Since the students are beginners and have trouble paying attention for long periods of time I will probably want to cut out one of the practice activities as well as the production activity and replace it with a game. For now this is what I have:

Objective: This lesson will teach students vocabulary and conversation tools about types of food and also help students to make healthy food choices by using a food pyramid.

Type: Food

Vocabulary: food, diet, healthy, unhealthy, food pyramid, water, carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, protein, fats, vitamins, yogurt, bread, cheese, meat, eggs, tomato, potatoes, carrots, peas, apple, banana, pear, orange, grapes, strawberries, pineapple, pasta, butter, oil, rice

Levels: Beginner (3rd grade science section B)

Materials: food flashcards (with visual and name), 1 filled in food pyramid, 1 blank food pyramid, blackboard and chalk.

Resources:

http://www.eslflashcards.com/

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-flashcards.htm

http://www.esl-kids.com/flashcards/food.html

Time: 60 minutes

Interaction: Student to teacher, Teacher to Student

Potential problems: Students may have trouble remembering vocabulary and pronouncing vowels while trying to speak in English.

Presentation:

Pre-work:

Before the lesson begins (one week before) students will be told to bring in a list of their favorite foods. If they know the words in English they can write them and if not they will write them in Spanish and learn them in English when they get to class.

Create Interest in Topic:

Students will come to class with their list of favorite foods. I will ask them the following questions before we begin:

What types of food are there?

Why do we need food?

What does food give us that helps us stay healthy?

I will also ask them in Spanish because most likely they will not know the answers in English. I will write the different types of foods on the board (carbohydrates, protein, fats, vegetables, fruits) and explain how they each keep us healthy. I will also draw a giant pyramid (but leave it empty, to be filled in later)

Then I will call on the students and ask them what they wrote down as their favorite foods and copy these onto the blackboard next to the pyramid.

Practice:

1. Pronounciation is what we focus on the most. I will hold up a flashcard that says the name of a fruit/vegetable/meat (along with a picture) and the students will repeat after me. After they are able to pronouce the vocabulary well I will fold the sheet in half so that they can only see the picture. I will then ask them, what type of food is this? A fruit? A vegetable? I will do this for every vocabulary term.

2. Then I will hand out the filled in diagram of the food pyramid. Students will use this as a study tool and it will help them in this activity.

I will ask the students what they like to eat, and what they eat for each meal. They will respond with:

“I like to eat ____.”

“I don’t like to eat ____.”

“For breakfast I eat _____.”

“For lunch I eat ______.”

“For dinner I eat ______.”

We will make a list on the board of breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. They will also write this beneath the food pyramids I have given them. We will talk about the different categories and how much of each we should be eating (serving size).

3. Then I will ask the students to come and use tape to place the flashcard in the proper box in the food pyramid.

Production:

1. Lets make a salad. Ask the students what type of foods you put in salads? Name some of the specific foods you would put in a salad. (review vocabulary again)

2. Students will be given a food pyramid diagram that is blank. They will begin to fill it out in class with the names of the new foods they have learned. If they do not finish in class they can bring it home for homework.