Lesson Plan of the week

If you are an English language teacher looking for materials, we can help you with a new lesson plan and classroom materials every week.

It's our Summer break: the next update will be on 05 September

A fizzy drink and a bag of crisps
By Clare Lavery

Theme: Talking about healthy eating and eating habits. The poor dietary habits of children in the UK and recent reports on child obesity.
Lexical area: food and drink, nutritional content of foods
Cross curricular links: Personal and social education, biology and the science of nutrition.
Media Studies

Instructions for assistants in italics

Classroom materials

Introduction

This lesson is a series of activities based on a menu and some recent statistics in the UK media on the poor state of children’s and young people’s eating habits. The main word used in reference to this scandal is “time bomb” since the eating habits being taught now will have a dramatic impact on adult health in the future and obese children will become obese adults. Obesity is linked to shorter life expectancy, as is a diet too high in fat, sugar and salt.

• Higher levels can refer to a recent UK press article to find out more or look at the measures being proposed to tackle obesity/the food industry.
  Look in http://society.guardian.co.uk/public health to find recent stories
  
  Lower levels may need a lot of visual support so bring pictures of kids food, adverts for kid’s versions of adult food and do some food and drink vocabulary brainstorming before you start to see how much vocabulary they know.

1. Food and health

• With a higher level the first task could involve a discussion on how the size of meals and the content of a ‘proper’ meal vary from country to country. What should you cook for dinner if friends come over?
  Help build an awareness that the social rules of eating vary. Is there the equivalent of the British idea of ‘meat and 3 veg’? What about your own family’s essential foods list? Build a list of suggestions from pairs on the board.
• Visuals will help with lower levels in this exercise and run through an example of each category before they decide in pairs. Elicit if sugar, fibre or fat are good for you? You will begin to see what preconceived notions your host country has about food. Keep neutral.

Task 1 Food and health

Make a list of foods or drinks that are considered essential to eat in your country.
For example, in some cultures a meal is not a meal if there is not any bread on the table. Wine is an important drink.

How much do you know about the nutritional content of the food you eat? Divide your foods into the following categories:

Foods that contain

• Fat
• Sugar
• Fibre
• Protein
• Carbohydrate
• Vitamins

Do any of your foods contain a high quantity of fat? Sugar? Fibre?

Are people in your country interested in what their food contains? Why? Why not? Are you interested in looking at what you eat?

Back to top

2. Eating habits

• Introduce this topic by describing a recent picnic lunch or the type of packed lunch you have eaten. Elicit examples and participation. 'What do you usually drink if you take a packed lunch?'
• Put students in pairs to discuss the tasks. After the first one hold a very quick class feedback to see if there are key foods everyone eats or main types of drink. Do your students think their own choices of lunch are balanced and healthy?

Task 2 Eating habits

Describe the contents of a typical packed lunch you might take to work, school or on a day out.
' I would take a…and some…..'

Compare to your partner’s tastes and habits.
Have all the class made similar choices?
Are there any main foods? Drinks?

Check the facts on School lunch boxes in the UK.

• Are UK kids making similar choices to you?
• Does anything surprise you?
• What’s the problem with their lunch boxes? (they are nutritionally very poor, too much salt and sugar, no fibre in the form of fruit and vegetables)

Note that crisps are not just a snack food but also used as part of a meal. What types of snack foods do your students eat? They could at this point do a class survey if they need question practice and a basic controlled activity: What is your favourite snack? How often do you eat snacks? (elicit questions from the class)

Back to top

3. Menu planning

• The first task can be a motivating writing exercise so ask one group member to be secretary to draw up the menu sheet. They can pass their menus around to compare their choices. Circulate and ask them to explain any dishes you do not know. This will be good language practice for meeting foreign visitors. This can lead to a follow up lesson based on restaurant situations and explaining how food is cooked etc. Useful for some students.

Task 3 Menu planning

In the UK it is now common to find a special ‘Kid’s menu’ in a restaurant or pub. This menu is different to the main ‘adult’ menu and usually contains food that young people prefer to eat.

• Make a special ‘Kid’s menu’ for a restaurant in your country. Think of 4-5 dishes that young people might like to eat. Which dishes will help bring young customers to your restaurant? Think of some desserts too.
• Compare your menu to the typical Kid’s menu from a UK restaurant. Do you have similar tastes? Are there any foods which surprise you? Which menu is healthier: your menu or the one from the UK? Why?

Back to top

4. Changing habits and lifestyles

• The first task can be a quick round the class discussion but with a good group could lead to them asking their partner :Who influenced the way you ate when you were little? Who chose your food? Were you aware of snack foods or “naughty foods”? Who influences your food choices now? Ask each pair to think of 2 reasons why a family meal is good for kids (rather than a snack alone or in front of the TV).

Task 4 Changing habits and lifestyles

Is it usual in your country for children to eat different food or meals to their parents?
Do you share mealtimes? Has it always been this way?

Have any of the following things changed much since your grandparents were children?

• Foods that are on sale in shops and markets
• Methods of cooking (new machines like microwaves)
• Meal times and the places where people eat ( eating out more)
• The size of meals ( bigger portions? Smaller portions?)
• Ideas about what is healthy to eat or drink?

The government and health experts in the UK are now warning that young people will have shorter lives than their parents’ generation: Why is this?

Use the facts and food examples in the texts to explain the possible reasons.

What methods do you think might be used to encourage young people and their parents to make better choices of food? For example: Ban all fizzy drinks from schools and children’s TV advertising.

Who is responsible: schools? Parents? The food industry?

Do you agree that this is important?

Find more about this topic on Language Assistant
Find more lesson plans like these our Teaching English site