Vegetables and likes 1 lesson plan

“I like potatoes!”

Lesson 29 Level 1 Age 3-5

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Lesson 29

Vegetables and likes 1

In this lesson students talk about different vegetables and learn how to give an opinion by saying which food they like or dislike. They play fun food themed games, sing songs and chat about food.

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Age: 3-5 years
Time: 40 mins – 1 hour
Objectives: Talking about different vegetables, saying what you like and dislike.
Structures: “I like ~”, “I don’t like ~”.
New vocabulary: carrot(s), potato(es), cabbage(s), onion(s).
Review vocabulary: fruit and [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] vocab, numbers 1-10.

Lesson materials

Printables:

Fruit and vegetables likes worksheet
Fruit and vegetables likes draw worksheet

Songs:

Hello song
Goodbye song
The weather song
What fruit do you like?

Supplies:

name tags for each student
a glove puppet
[hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] crayons / pencils
a large cloth bag
plastic fruit or flashcards (apple, banana, grapes, orange, melon, pineapple, lemon, strawberry)
plastic vegetables or flashcards (carrot, potato, cabbage, onion)
magazines from supermarkets with [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] pictures of food (or cookbooks with food photos)
scissors and glue
weather board (see end of this page for details)
cushions (1 per student)
device to play the songs on

Notes:

In this lesson students talk about different types of vegetables and review fruit vocabulary. They also learn how to express which food they like and dislike. They sing songs, play fun games and do a worksheet.

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Greetings
Greet the students by name as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down (on cushions if you have them) in a fan-shape around you.

2. Name tags
Before class, prepare some blank name tags (stickers or pin-on tags) and some cards, each with a student’s name written on clearly – students will use them to copy their names onto their name tags. Sit down with your students and lay out the name cards in front of you. Pick up each card and encourage the student to recognize his/her name. Do this for everyone.

Finally, have everyone take out a crayon or pencil and copy their name on their tags and stick them on.

Introduce glove puppet - greetings and introductions activity

3. Glove puppet greetings
Bring out your glove puppet bag and have everyone shout “Hello!“ into the bag until he wakes up and jumps out of the bag. Then model talking to the glove puppet …

Teacher: “Hello”, What’s your name?”
Puppet: “My name is…”.
Puppet: “How are you?”
Teacher: “I’m fine, thank you”.
Puppet: “How old are you?”
Teacher: “I’m …”.

… and then have the puppet say hello to each student and ask them the same questions, including their age. Finally, go around saying “Goodbye” and “See you” before going back into the bag and back to sleep.

4. Sing the “Hello song”
Sit in a circle and sing the song (clap along or pat knees).

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):
 [/hide_on_us]

5. Homework check
Check each student’s homework that you set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “What’s this?”, “Are these red shoes?”, etc.), 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.

6. Do “Exercise routine” activity
Say the following and have the students follow your lead:

“Stand up” (Teacher stands and so does everyone else)
“Hands up / hands down” (do 4 or 5 times)
“Jump” (4 or 5 times)
“Kick” (4 or 5 times)
“Run! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Turn around! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Wiggle” (a few seconds)
finally “Sit down”.

7. Do the “What’s in the bag?” activity
Time for the bag again. Before class, put a couple of new objects (e.g. a crayon, a plastic bottle, a sock, a paper cup, a leaf, a ball, a teddy, etc. – anything lying around (and safe!)) into the bag.

Show the bag to your students, shake it to rattle the objects inside, and ask, “What’s in the bag?”.

Randomly pull out different objects and teach/elicit the words – in each case, have students hold and pass the objects around. You can even have students pull the objects out of the bag instead of you taking them out – with eyes closed to make it fun!

Finally, place/throw the objects around the classroom and have each student retrieve an object as you call out its name and put it back in the bag.

8. Sing “The weather song”
Time for the weather section of the lesson! Put the weather flashcards on the board in the order of the song (or use our song poster). Have all the students stand up and watch you as you sing along and use the gestures. Encourage them to join in and sing along.

Lyrics for “The weather song”

Verse 1:
How’s the weather? How’s the weather?
Look outside.
How’s the weather? How’s the weather?
Look outside.
It’s sunny, it’s rainy, it’s windy, it’s cloudy.
It’s snowy, it’s foggy, it’s hot, it’s cold.

Verse 2:
How’s the weather? How’s the weather?
Look outside.
How’s the weather? How’s the weather?
Look outside.
It’s sunny, it’s rainy, it’s windy, it’s cloudy.
It’s snowy, it’s foggy, it’s hot, it’s cold.

Gestures for “The weather song”

There are some easy gestures you can do as you sing along to the song:

For the question part “How’s the weather?”, sing along and do the ‘palms of the hands up’ question gesture.
For the “Look outside” part, face the window and put your hand over your eyes (like a salute), as if you were looking into the distance.
Use hand gestures for the weather words:
- sunny: slowly spread your arms out
- rainy: wiggle your fingers downwards like rain
- windy: gesture wind blowing out of your mouth
- cloudy: make cloudy shapes with your hands
- snowy: wiggle your fingers downwards like snow and shiver
- foggy: close your eyes and put your hand out in front like you are trying to feel for something you can’t see
- hot: fan your face
- cold: shiver and wrap your arms around your body

FREE SAMPLE (full-length song):

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[hide_on_us][/hide_on_us]

9. Talk about the weather outside
Motion for your students to come over to the window (or even outside). Say, “How’s the weather? Look outside”. Elicit the weather from the words they learned in the last lessons (It’s sunny / cloudy / windy / rainy / snowy / foggy / hot / cold).

Depending on weather conditions, you can introduce more weather words, such as:

stormy
misty
showery

warm
cool
freezing

humid
frosty
icy

drizzly

Weather board for showing today's weather

10. Use the “Weather board”
Use the weather board that you created in the previous class (see instructions here). Invite some students to come up and put weather pictures for today’s weather on the board. Make sure they say the word as they put the card on the board.

If you introduced any new weather words as you were talking about the weather just now, add these pictures to your board – you can either draw them there and then or prepare the pictures before class.

11. Play fruit review games
In today’s lesson your students are going to express their likes and dislikes for different food, so let’s start by reviewing fruit from previous lesson.

You’ll need plastic fruit or flashcards for the following: apple, banana, grapes, orange, melon, pineapple, lemon, strawberry – put them in a bag or box. If you have other plastic fruits, feel free to add these to the bag to teach new words.

Sit everyone in a circle on the floor and slowly pull each fruit out of the bag – each time elicit the fruit word. Have students take pretend bites out of each fruit and get them saying, “Yummy, yuk, I like ~, I don’t like ~. Then, pass the fruit around the circle having students say the fruit words as they pass them around.

Next, play “What’s missing?” – put the fruit in the middle of the circle and get everyone to close their eyes. Take a fruit away and say, “Open your eyes!”. Students have to shout out the missing fruit. Continue for all the fruit. Finally, play “Fetch the fruit”. Throw the plastic fruits (or place the flashcards) around the classroom and then ask individual students to fetch and give you a fruit.

If your students need the extra practice, feel free to play more fruit review games, such as the “Fruit wall touch” game and the “Fruit rope jump” game.

12. Sing the “What fruit do you like?” song
Before playing the song, put the plastic fruit or flashcards in order of the floor / board. Have everyone stand up and sing along, pointing to the fruit pictures on the walls as they are sung.

Lyrics for the “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 the “What fruit do you like?”

There are no specific gestures for this song. You can have the students 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.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

New learning and practice:

1. Do “1 to 10 chant”
We are going to practice counting up to 10 and introduce the vegetables at the same time. Let’s start with a quick counting review. Have everyone sit in a circle on the floor. Start slowly clapping and patting knees – everyone doing in time together. Then start counting in time with the rhythm, “1 … 2 .. 3 ..” up to 10. Encourage everyone to join in counting with you.

Each time you reach 10, speed up the rhythm slightly, getting faster and faster each round, until you reach a crazy speed and fall over, exhausted!

2. Play “Count the food”
Bring out the fruit (plastic pieces or flashcards) again, and discard some so that you have 6 fruit. Place the fruit in your bag/box along with today’s 4 vegetables (carrot, potato, cabbage, onion – again plastic pieces or flashcards), so you have a total of 10 food pieces.

Take out a fruit, elicit the word and place it on the floor. Point to it and say, “How many are there?”, and elicit “1”. Do for the 6 fruit, each time count the fruit on the floor. Next, bring out the first vegetable. Have some fun with this – teach and chorus (x3) the word, pass the plastic vegetable or flashcard around the class having students say the word and taking a bite and saying, “Yummy! / Yuk!”, “I like / don’t like (carrots)”. Then place the vegetable on the floor with the fruit and count them all. Continue with the remaining vegetables until you have all 10 food pieces on the floor.

3. Play “Like / Dislike pick up”
Remain in a circle on the floor with the 10 fruit and vegetables in the middle. Say, “I like … apples, bananas … potatoes …”, etc. and pick up the food pieces as you do so. Make it obvious that you like these (say “Yummy!”, take bites and look like you love the taste). Next, put them down and say, “I don’t like … grapes … onions …”, etc. Again, make this obvious by taking bites, saying “Yuk!” and pulling a disgusted face.

Now, go around the circle and have each student pick up the food pieces saying the ones they like and dislike. Give lots of help, encouragement and praise.

4. Do the “Fruit and vegetables likes” worksheet
Give out the worksheets and model first: point to a fruit or vegetable, [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] it in and say, “Hmmm, I like apples” and draw a line from a happy face to the apple. Do the same for some more items, including dislikes. Circulate as your students are doing their worksheets, ask lots of questions (e.g. “Do you like cabbages?) and give lots of praise. At the end, do a quick check – ask each student to point to a food item on their worksheet and say a sentence (e.g., “I don’t like carrots”).

5. 5-minute play time
This is an optional segment that can be part of all your lessons at this level. Allow your students to play with any games or toys you have. If possible, use large tubs or boxes to hold the toys and bring them out for a few minutes each lesson. Tubs filled with animals, plastic fruit, building blocks, kitchen sets, plastic food, cars & vehicles, Mr. Potato Head dolls and so on.

Encourage your students to ask you for the toy they want to play with, circulate during the play time and ask students about their toys. It’s also a good opportunity for a quick rest room break!

6. Chat about food with magazine pictures
You can pick up free magazines from supermarkets with color pictures of what’s on sale. If you can, pick up a few to use in class. Also, cooking magazines or books often have lots of great pictures.

Sit everyone around you and hold up the magazine. Go through the pages of food and talk with everyone about their likes and dislikes. It’s fine that for most of the food items your students haven’t learned the English words – they will be able to tell you if they like or dislike certain things. You can teach new food vocabulary and have students use the structures, “I like / don’t like …”). Have lots of fun and encourage everyone to join in!

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Fruit and vegetables likes draw” worksheet
Hold up the homework worksheet – this is a fun drawing activity. Model drawing different fruit and vegetables in the ‘I like’ and ‘I don’t like’ boxes, each time saying the structure, “I like ~ / I don’t like ~”.

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 working on them right away.

2. Say goodbye to the 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”
Sit together in a circle and sing and clap along.

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 hold up a plastic fruit or vegetable (or use flashcards) and ask, “What’s this?” and also get them to say if they like it or not.

When they say respond correctly say goodbye and let them leave. If they make a mistake, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!

Future lessons: Reviewing and checking the weather each lesson:

1. Prepare a “Weather board”
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.

We have made a video showing how to make a weather board here:

2. Sing The weather song
In the warm up section of your lesson you can include a weather section – introduce this section by singing the weather song (with gestures).

3. Look outside
Get everyone to look outside by saying, “How’s the weather? Look outside”. Elicit the weather for that day.

4. 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.