Vegetables and likes 3 lesson plan

“It’s delicious!”

Lesson 31 Level 1 Age 3-5

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Lesson 31

Vegetables and likes 3

In this lesson students continue to talk about different vegetables and express their opinions by saying which food they like or dislike. They play fun food themed games, read a funny story, do a craft activity and roleplay an exciting cooking activity.

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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 ~”, “Let’s eat!”.
New vocabulary: rabbit, basket, vegetable soup, delicious.
Review vocabulary: carrot(s), potato(es), cabbage(s), onion(s), pumpkin(s), corn, radish(es), lettuce(s), farmer, farm, growing, fruit vocabulary.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Vegetables: carrot, potato, cabbage, onion, pumpkin, corn, radish, lettuce.

Printables:

Vegetable basket craft sheets
Vegetable basket worksheet
The farmer’s vegetables reader worksheet

Songs:

Hello song
Goodbye song
The weather song
Mr. Farmer’s vegetables

Readers:

The farmer’s vegetables

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 vegetables or flashcards (carrot, potato, cabbage, onion, pumpkin, corn, radish, lettuce)
real vegetables OR plastic vegetables OR flashcards / pictures for the following: carrot, potato, cabbage, onion, pumpkin, corn (on the cob if possible), radish, lettuce
1 basket (for the vegetables)
1 blindfold
Blu-Tack or tape to stick flashcards on the wall
glue
large cooking pot, ladle, plastic/paper bowls and spoons
weather board (see end of this page for details)
cushions (1 per student)
device to play the songs on

Notes:

In this lesson students continue to talk about different types of vegetables and express which food they like and dislike. They read a funny story, play games, do a vegetable craft and make soup.
NOTE: Before class, try to get some real vegetables – if possible, the following: carrot, potato, cabbage, onion, pumpkin, corn (on the cob if possible), radish, lettuce. You’ll also need a large cooking pot, ladle, plastic/paper bowls and spoons for the cooking roleplay activity.

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):
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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?”, “I like carrots. How about you?”, 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. Sing “Mr. Farmer’s vegetables”
Let’s begin the vegetable section of the lesson with the song we learned last lesson. Stick the vegetable flashcards around the walls of the classroom in the order of the song. Try and get it so that the cards are evenly distributed around the walls (still in the order of the song) so you will have to turn 360 degrees to look at all of the cards. Alternatively, you can use the song poster.

Get everyone to stand up and dance, sing and point to the vegetables.

Lyrics for “Mr. Farmer’s vegetables”

Chorus:
Oh, Mr. farmer, what are you growing?
On your farm, on your farm.
Oh, Mr. farmer, tell us what you’re growing,
On your farm, on your farm.

Verse 1:
I am growing carrots, carrots,
I am growing potatoes, potatoes,
I am growing cabbages, cabbages,
I am growing onions, onions.

Chorus:
Oh, Mr. farmer, what are you growing?
On your farm, on your farm.
Oh, Mr. farmer, tell us what you’re growing,
On your farm, on your farm.

Verse 2:
I am growing pumpkins, pumpkins,
I am growing corn, corn,
I am growing radish, radish,
I am growing lettuce, lettuce.

Gestures for “Mr. Farmer’s vegetables”

Before playing the song, put flashcards of the vegetables all around the walls of the classroom (in the same order of the song). Then start the song and do the following gestures:

During the chorus have everyone do the cowboy dance – thumbs in belt hoops and kicking your legs out in time with the music.
For the verses point to each of the vegetable flashcards on the wall.

[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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12. Play “Find the vegetables”
As you did in the last lesson, buy and bring to class one of each of the following vegetables: a carrot, a potato, a cabbage, an onion, a pumpkin, corn (on the cob if possible), a radish, a lettuce. Also, bring in a few more extra vegetables to teach, especially ones that are common in your area/country. If you can’t bring vegetables into class, other options are plastic vegetables, vegetable flashcards and vegetable photos cut out of free supermarket magazines. Also, bring in a basket for the vegetables.

We’ll play the treasure hunt game again – before your students enter your classroom hide the vegetables all around the room – in draws, behind books, under things, etc. Have everyone sit down and say to your students, “Let’s look for some vegetables!”. Then stand up and demonstrate that you are searching for something. Find one of the vegetables (e.g. under a cushion) and show your thrill in doing so. Take it over to the basket and drop it in saying, “Put it in the basket”.

Then get everyone to hunt around the room until all the vegetables have been found and placed in the basket.

13. Review / Teach the vegetables vocabulary
Start off by reviewing the vegetable vocabulary from the last lesson. Hold up the first vegetable (e.g. carrot) and elicit/chorus the word. Then pass the vegetable around the class, each student saying its name, taking a pretend bite and saying “Yummy/Yuk”, “I like / don’t like (carrots)”.

When you reach any new vegetables that you brought to class, chorus each word x3 and the pass around again, same as before, getting everyone to say if they like it or not.

14. Play “The missing vegetable” and “Blindfold touch”
Line all the vegetables up on a desk. Say “Close your eyes” and get everyone to cover and close their eyes. Take away one of the vegetables and hide it behind your back – everyone must open their eyes and shout out the missing vegetable. Play this until all the vegetables vocabulary has been practiced.

Keep the vegetables lined up on the desk. Take out a blindfold and model the activity – put on the blindfold then touch and feel one of the vegetables. Look confused and say the wrong word (e.g. touch a cabbage and say “Is it a carrot?”). Get the students to help you until you guess correctly. Then blindfold one student, turn him/her around 3 times and help him/her to go to the desk and touch/feel one vegetable and say what it is. Give all the students a go.

15. Play “Musical pass the vegetables”
Sit everyone in a circle, put on some music, and have everyone pass all the vegetables around the circle (in the same direction). So the music will be playing and all your vegetables will be going around the circle.

Suddenly stop the music – the students holding the vegetables must shout out the name of the vegetable they are holding. The last person to shout out the correct word is out (and also remove their vegetable). Keep playing, with each round the last person going out. You should end up with just 2 students passing two vegetables back and forth. It’s a really fun game – you can play a few rounds if you have time!

New learning and practice:

1. Read classroom reader “The farmer’s vegetables”
Before class, download and print off the reader “The farmer’s vegetables”. As you go through each page, point to the pictures and elicit each key word, and also make sure everyone is aware if the rabbit hiding in each picture, for example:

Teacher: What is this?
Students: Corn!
Teacher: And what’s missing?
Students: Carrots!
Teacher: And who’s hiding here?
Students: A rabbit!

Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. eliciting [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us], clothes and other objects) and try and get everyone to speculate why the vegetables keep disappearing.

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 write the order that the rabbit eats the vegetables. Then go through the answers as a class.

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

2. 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.

3. Do the “Vegetable basket craft”
Use the following craft sheets:

Vegetable basket craft – sheet A
Vegetable basket craft – sheet B

Before class, print off enough craft sheets for each student as well as yourself and cut out the basket and vegetable pictures. Give the cut-outs to each student and then get everyone to follow you as you [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] in the vegetables and the basket – as you are doing this chat with your students, asking questions such as, “What [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] shall we use for the potato?”, “Do you like cabbage?”, “What’s your [hide_on_uk]favorite[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]favourite[/hide_on_us] vegetable?”, etc.

When everything has been [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] in, glue the baskets to construction paper and get the students to put in their vegetables (have them say the names of the vegetables as they do so).

An alternative is to print off just one large basket and get everyone to put their [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] vegetables into the “class basket”.

4. Play “Let’s make vegetable soup”
To finish off the lesson we are going make some imaginary vegetable soup. You need a large cooking pot, ladle and some plastic/paper bowls and spoons.

Say, “I’m hungry. Let’s make some soup!” (while rubbing your empty stomach). Take out the large pot and say, “Let’s cook vegetable soup! We need some vegetables”. Model by taking one of your vegetable cut-outs from your craft basket – say, “Yummy, I like (radish)” and put it into the pot and stir. Then say, “Hmm. We need some more vegetables”. Invite each student to take some of their vegetables from their craft basket and put into the pot, saying, “Yummy, I like ~”. Keep stirring – you can also invite students to give the soup a stir.

Finally, say, “The soup is ready!”. Get everyone to hold out their bowls and ladle in some imaginary soup. If some students refuse, this is fine – try and get them to say, “I don’t like vegetable soup”. Then say, “Let’s eat!”.

Make lots of slurping noises and say things like “Yummy!” and “Delicious!” and encourage everyone else to do the same. You can even offer seconds! Finish off by getting everyone to retrieve their vegetable cut-outs from the pot and put back into their baskets.

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Vegetable basket” worksheet
Hold up the homework worksheet – this is a fun matching activity. Model by pointing to a vegetable, eliciting the word, [hide_on_uk]coloring[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colouring[/hide_on_us] it in and saying, “Let’s put it in the vegetable basket” – draw a line from the vegetable to the basket. Say, “I like ~ / I don’t like ~” as you do so. Next, point to a non-vegetable item (e.g. a t-shirt) and ask, “Does this go in the vegetable basket?”, and elicit a negative response. Don’t [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] it in or draw a line to the basket. Do for a few more items so everyone understands what to do.

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 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.