Fruit Lesson Plan

Notes:

The 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:

See our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" page.

New Learning and Practice:

1. Teach the fruit vocab
If you can, get small plastic fruit (can be bought quite cheaply from children’s stores, 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 around the classroom. 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 on the "Fruit Rope Jump" game: 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 color is it?
Students: Green!
Teacher: Right! Good job! (reading from the story) ... "Along came an apple ...".

Read classroom reader "Fruit Salad" Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. eliciting the fruit and their colors) 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.

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

5. Teach structures "What fruit do you like?" and "I like ~"

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 (see the flashcard links at the bottom of this page). 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. Now 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 vocab, 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 stick 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.

(download MP3 here)

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).

We also have a video that you can stream in class to sing along with (Internet connection required):

8. Do the "Color Lots of Fruit" worksheet
Give out the "Color Lots of Fruit" worksheet to each student. Have everyone color in the fruit pictures. Then model the task – hold up your worksheet and say "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.

Do "Fruit Tasting" activity

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 vocab 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?"
The 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.