Fruit lesson plan

Stand-alone lesson ESL kids lesson plan

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Fruit

In this lesson students practice saying different fruit and talking about likes and dislikes. Students play fun games and activities, read a funny story, sing a song, do a coloring worksheet and taste some real fruit!

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Age: 3-7 years
Time: 40 mins – 1 hour
Objectives: Saying different fruit and talking about likes.
Structures: “What fruit do you like (to eat)?”, “I like …”, “I like them very much.”
Target vocabulary: apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, melons, pineapples, lemons, strawberries, yummy, yuk.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, melons, pineapples, lemons, strawberries

Printables:

[hide_on_uk]Color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Colour[/hide_on_us] lots of fruit worksheet
Match up the fruit worksheet
Reader worksheet
What fruit do you like? song poster

Songs:

What fruit do you like?

Readers:

Fruit salad

Additional materials:

Fruit vocab crossword
Fruit vocab word search
Fruit match up worksheet

Supplies:

[hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] crayons / pencils
plastic fruit (in a small box)
a length of rope
real fruit, cut up into small pieces
cushions (1 per student)
device to play the song on

Notes:

This lesson is perfect for teaching fruit and the structures “What ~ do you like?”, “I like ~”. It ends with a fun fruit tasting session!

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

The beginning of your lesson is extremely important: this is where you set the tone of your lesson and get everyone in the right frame of mind for learning English. It is also an opportunity to check homework and review previous lessons.

Click for warm up suggestions for the start of your lessons

Print this warm up and maintenance section

These activities can be done in the following order at the start of your lesson:

1. Welcoming
Greet the students by name as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down. If you have space on the floor, it’s a good idea to have a cushion for each student as this makes sitting arrangements easy to [hide_on_uk]organize[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]organise[/hide_on_us]. Try and arrange the cushions beforehand spaced out in a fan-shape around you.

2. Name tags
Before class prepare some name tags (stickers or pin-on tags) with each student’s name written in lower case letters. Sit down with your students and lay out the name tags in front of you. Pick up each tag and call out the name. Try and encourage each student to put their hand up and say “yes”. Hand over the tags and help to pin / stick on. Later on as your students recognize their written names you can have each student in turn pick out their own name tag.

3. Greetings
Use a glove puppet (such as a Sesame Street puppet) to greet the students. Keep him in a cloth bag. Bring out the bag, open it enough to see in and shout into the bag the puppet’s name (e.g. “Cookie Monster!”). Then move your ear to the opening to listen – nothing. Go to each student and encourage them to shout the puppet’s name into the bag – each time nothing happens. Finally, get all the students together to shout the name at the same time. This time the puppet wakes up and jumps out of the bag! The puppet then chats to each student:

Puppet (teacher): Hello, What’s your name?
Student Hello. My name is….
Puppet: Goodbye / See you!
Student: Goodbye / See you!

As your students learn more phrases, you can include them in the conversation, such as “How old are you? Do you like …?, Can you …?, etc.

Finally, the puppet goes back into the bag and back to sleep.

4. Sing the “Hello song” or a review song
Sit in a circle and sing along to the song. Encourage students to clap along or pat their laps in time with the music. The Hello song is a good song to start the lesson with, especially as it has an accompanying Goodbye song to sing at the end of the lesson.

Lyrics for the “Hello song”

Hello, hello, Hello, hello,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine, thank you, I’m fine, thank you,
We’re ok, We’re ok.

Lyrics for “The Hello Song”

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
Hello, hello,
How are you today?

I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Gestures for the “Hello song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Hello, hello” parts.
Gesture to others as you sing, “How are you today?”
Point to yourself as you sing, “I’m fine, thank you”
Hand gesture towards another student as you sing, “And how about you?”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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5. Read a classroom reader again
As you progress through the lessons you will start to build up a catalog of classroom readers. Kids love going back to old stories and reading through them again. Invite a student to pick a classroom reader and read through it as a class. Make the story as interactive as possible by asking questions (e.g. what [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] there are, the names of different objects, etc.) and getting students to speculate what is going to happen next in the story.

6. Homework check
Check each student’s homework set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “what [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] is it?”), give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face). Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

7. Do “Exercise routine” activity
Say the following and have your students follow your lead: “Stand up (teacher stands and so does everyone else), “Hands up / hands down” (x 3-5), “Jump” (x3-5), “Run! / Stop!” (x3-5), “Turn around! / Stop!” (x3-5), finally “Sit down”.

Throughout the course you can introduce other commands, such as “Hop”, “Star Jump”, “Wiggle”, “Crouch” and so on.

Extra activity: Once your students have got to know these exercises you can play “Teacher says” using these actions.

How to play … Teacher says:

This is basically the game ‘Simon says’ but using the words “Teacher says” instead. The teacher tells the students to do an action and they do as asked (e.g. “Teacher says … jump 3 times”). The teacher keeps on giving instructions with different actions using “Teacher says …”. At some point the teacher gives a command without using the phrase “Teacher says” (e.g. “Hop 5 times”) and the students must not do that action – they have to stay still. Any students that do the action have to sit out for the rest of the game. The last student standing is the winner.

8. Name writing practice
If your students cannot write their names yet, this is a great activity. For really young ones, don’t worry if their effort is a scrawly mess – always encourage and praise.

You will need to prepare a writing sheet for each student before class with their name written in dots for them to practice tracing their names (also prepare one for yourself so you can model the task). You can either make these yourself (hand draw the dots for each name) or use a font typed into a Word document – we like to use the “National First Font Dotted” font (you can download it for free here: http://www.fontspace.com/roger-white/national-first-font-dotted).

Prepare the sheets something like this:

Tip:

Make a few extra copies of each student’s name writing sheet so you can use them in future lesson or for homework.

When everyone has finished writing their names, get each student to hold up their sheet so you and everyone can see. Give lots of praise to each student.

9. Review past lessons
Reviewing past lessons is very important – students need constant practice of new vocab, structures, songs, games and so on. Always review parts of your last lesson as well as some parts from other previous lessons. You can spend 5-10 minutes reviewing – it’s fine to recycle games and activities from your past lessons to review as kids enjoy playing familiar games (although be careful not to play a game to death!).

Note: You can also include review activities in the main body of your lesson. Kids can have short attention spans so it’s good to be able to pull out lots of activities during different stages of the lesson.

Other ideas to include in your warm up:

What’s in the bag?
This is a great activity to do at the beginning of your lessons. Fill a large cloth bag with items from your previous lessons (e.g. plastic fruit, animals, etc.). You can also throw in a few other objects (e.g. a pencil, a plastic bottle, a plastic cup – anything lying around (and safe!)). Show the bag to your students and shake it to rattle the objects inside. Pull out different objects, teach/elicit their names, have students hold and pass the objects around. You can even have students pull objects out of the bag. Pull out 1 or 2 objects per student. Finally, place the objects around the classroom and have each student retrieve each object as you call out its name and put it back in the bag.

Knock-knock
This can be used at the beginning of each class. Teach the students to knock on the door before entering the classroom. There are 2 variations for the next step:

When the student knocks, teacher says, “Who’s there?”. The student replies, “It’s (Koji)” and then the teacher says, “Come in (Koji)”.
When the student knocks the teacher must guess who it is, “Is that (Koji)?”. The student replies yes or no – if no, the teacher continues guessing. Having your students develop their own knocking styles makes this even more fun.

Spin the bottle
Sit students in a circle with a bottle in the middle. Teacher spins the bottle. When it stops spinning the student it is pointing at has to answer a question. If the answer is correct then that student can spin the bottle. For example, How are you? What’s your name? What is this? (show an object or flashcard) Do you like _?, etc.

Talk about the weather (do after you have taught the weather lesson plan).

Prepare a weather board. Before the first class prepare a piece of cardboard and cover it with felt – you are going to pin this to the wall. If you can, try and get blue felt (to represent the sky). Write at the top in large letters, “How’s the weather today?”. Below the write “Today it’s”. Cut out weather pictures (such as our weather flashcards) and stick some velcro on the back. Arrange the weather pictures around the edge of the board and then put the board on the wall of your classroom. You can now use this weather board at the beginning of every lesson.
Sing “The weather song”. Sing the song together doing all of the gestures.
Look outside. Get everyone to look outside by saying, “How’s the weather? Look outside”. Elicit the weather for that day.
Put the weather pictures on the weather board. Invite some students to come up and put the weather pictures on the board. Make sure these students say the word as they put the card on the board.

New learning and practice:

1. Teach the fruit vocabulary
If you can, get small plastic fruit (can be bought quite cheaply from toy [hide_on_uk]stores[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]shops[/hide_on_us], such as Toys ‘R’ Us). Put the 8 fruit into a small box before the class.

Now take out the box and shake it – the rattling sound will instantly alert your students. Open the box and pull out a fruit. Ask, “What’s this?” Elicit / Teach the name and chorus x3. Now mime biting the fruit and chewing, and then say “Yummy!”. Then hold the fruit in front of each student to let them take an imaginary bite. Encourage them to say “yummy!” or even “yuk!”. Repeat with the other fruit.

2. Play “Fruit fetch”
Try and take enough plastic fruit pieces for each student (e.g. if you have 16 students you need two of each plastic fruit – if you don’t have enough plastic fruit use our fruit flashcards instead).

Throw the fruit all around the classroom. Then model the activity: say, “(Your name) give me a/an (apple)”. Get up, find the fruit and put it into the box. Now hold the box and instruct a student to pick up a fruit, bring it back to you and put it in the box. Do for each student in the class.

3. Play “Fruit rope jump” game
Take a length of rope, and lay it across the floor at one end of the classroom. On one side place the 8 plastic fruit and the box. Have your students line up on the other side of the rope.

Model: “(Your name), put the (apple) in the box”. Run up to the rope, jump over the rope (say “Jump!”) select the correct fruit and put it in the box. Now instruct each student to do the activity.

Variations:

For older students, you can have two students holding the rope up whilst the other students jump over. Each time rise the height of the rope a little bit to make it increasingly difficult.

Also, you can have limbo rounds where students have to limbo under the rope.

4. Read classroom reader “Fruit salad”
This classroom reader ties in perfectly with the fruit your students have been learning – it’s a fun story which will help your students to internalize the key fruit vocabulary. Before class, download and print off the reader “Fruit salad”. As you go through each page, point to the pictures and let your students shout out what fruit they see, for example:

Teacher: What fruit is this? (pointing at the green apple on page 3)
Students: It’s an apple!
Teacher: Yes, that’s right! And what [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] is it?
Students: Green!
Teacher: Right! Good job! (reading from the story) … “Along came an apple …”.

Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. eliciting the fruit and their [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us]) and try to get everyone shouting out the frame, “They pushed and they heaved. But it was too heavy!”.

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and read through the story one more time (without stopping for questions, etc.) as students draw lines to the fruit in the order of the story. Then go through the answers as a class.

Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required).

5. Teach structures “What fruit do you like?” and “I like ~”
Sit everyone down to watch you. Take out the 8 plastic fruit. Take one and say, “Yummy! I like (apples)!”. Put it to your right side. Take another fruit and do the same. Next, take a fruit and say “Yuk! I don’t like (melons)”. Put it to your left. Keep going with the rest of the fruit until you have some fruit (likes) on your right and some (dislikes) on your left.

Put the fruit you like in front of you and say, “I like apples, grapes, pineapples … etc.). Then ask a student, “What fruit do you like?”. Encourage him/her to say, “I like …” and list the fruit he/she likes. Go around the class asking each student the question.

6. Play the fruit wall touch game
Before class print off pictures of the 8 fruit onto A4 paper. Hold up each picture, elicit the fruit and walk around the room taping them to the walls (at a height that your students can reach).

Now model the game: Say, “What fruit do I like?” and then run around the room touching each fruit that you like saying, “I like ~” as you touch each fruit.

Finally, get all of your students to stand up and say to them, “What fruit do you like?”. Allow them to run around the room touching fruit (encourage them to say “I like~” as they touch).

7. Sing the “What fruit do you like?” song
For the first time you play the song, have everyone sit down and watch you. Stand in the middle of the room and sing / clap along to the song. Once the song reaches the fruit vocabulary, point the A4 pictures on the wall for each fruit as it is sung. Next, get everyone to stand up and sing along, pointing the pictures. You can also pin our song poster on the board to help.

Lyrics for “What fruit do you like?”

Verse 1:
What fruit do you like? What fruit do you like?

I like apples, bananas, oranges, grapes,
I like them very much.

Verse 2:
What fruit do you like to eat? What fruit do you like to eat?

I like melons, pineapples, lemons, strawberries,
I like them very much.

Gestures for “What fruit do you like?”

There are no specific gestures for this song. You can have the kids clap along and pat their knees as they sing. Also, have them point to the fruit pictures on the classroom walls as they sing each fruit (see point 6 above).

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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8. Do the “[hide_on_uk]Color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Colour[/hide_on_us] lots of fruit” worksheet
Give out the worksheet to each student. Have everyone [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] in the fruit pictures. Then model the task – hold up your worksheet and ask, “What fruit do you like?”. Circle the fruit you like, each time saying, “I like (apples), etc.”. Then get the class to do the same. Circulate and check and ask questions (What fruit do you like?).

9. Do “Fruit tasting” activity
This takes a little bit of pre-class organizing but it’s well worth it – your kids will love this activity!

Buy a piece of fruit for each of the 8 fruits your class has studied. Canned fruit (such as fruit cocktail) will also be fine. If you can’t get all the fruit (out of season) don’t worry, just get as many as you can. Cut the fruit up into tiny squares – try and get all the squares roughly the same size. Put each fruit’s squares on separate paper or plastic plates.

In class, bring the plates into the classroom (don’t have them in the class before this activity as you will never get the students’ attention) and lay them out on a table. Your students have to guess which fruit is on each plate by smelling and eating. If you like, you can supply plastic spoons for each student. Model to the students what to do, though don’t give the game away – make out like you can’t figure out which fruit it is you are tasting and have the students taste and guess with you. Encourage vocabulary such as “Yummy” and “Yuk” and make sure they use the English fruit words and ask them which fruit they like. Good fun!

Optional activities:

1. “Yes/No guess”
If your students are able to ask simple yes/no questions, a fun guessing activity can be thrown into the lesson. Hide a piece of fruit (either plastic or real) behind your back, and the students need to ask yes/no questions to guess what is it. For example:

Student: “Is it red?”
Teacher: “No, it isn’t.”
Student: “Is it yellow?”
Teacher: “Yes, it is.”
Student: “Is it a banana?”
Teacher: “Yes, it is!”

The first student to guess correctly can eat a small piece of the fruit. If using plastic fruit the student can nibble and pretend to eat it.

2. “What do I want?”
Teacher puts fruit flashcards on the board saying each time, “Do I want a banana?”, “Do I want an apple?”, etc. When all the flashcards are up, the teacher asks the class, “What do I want?”. He/She makes a big show of looking alternately at the class and at the board, trying to telepathically transmit her thought to the class. The idea is for the class to say, “You want an apple!”, etc.

Wrap up:

Assign homework: “Match up the fruit worksheet” worksheet

Click for wrap up suggestions for the end of your lessons

Print this wrap up section

1. Assign homework
Each week give out a homework worksheet for your students to take home. Hold up the homework worksheet and model how to do it. Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags” and help them to do so – this is important as they will probably want to start [hide_on_uk]coloring[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colouring[/hide_on_us] them right away.

Note:

If possible, encourage the parents to help out as much as possible with their child’s homework – it is a great way to have your students practice the target language outside of class.

2. Say goodbye to glove puppet
Take out the bag again and get everyone to wake up the glove puppet by shouting its name into the bag (e.g. “Cookie Monster!”). Bring out the puppet and go through the same routine – go to each student and say hello, ask their name and the say goodbye / see you. Then put the puppet back in the bag (back to sleep).

3. Sing the “Goodbye song”
The “Goodbye song” is a great way to sign off the class. Sit together in a circle and sing and clap along. You can also use a different song, especially if your students love a particular song.

Lyrics for the “Goodbye song”

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.

It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Gestures for the “Goodbye song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Goodbye, goodbye” parts.
Hold your hand above your eyes (as you would when you are looking into the distance and keeping the sun out of your eyes) and look at another student as you sing, “See you again”.
Tap watch (or imaginary watch) and then point to the door as you sing, “It’s time to go”.
Point towards another student as you sing, “See you next time”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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4. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students. For each student check one new word or phrase, for example:

hold up an object or flashcard (such as a [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] or fruit) and ask, “What’s this?”
say an action for the student to do (e.g. “Roar like a lion”, “Jump 5 times”, etc.)
ask a question from the lesson (e.g. “How old are you?”, “Do you like bananas?”, “Can you play chess?”, etc.).
for very young students you can hold up one of the worksheets you did in the lesson and ask them to touch an object (e.g. “Touch the melon”).

When they give you the correct answer say goodbye and let them leave. If their answer is wrong, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!