Following a recipe: Making vegetable soup

Learn the basic vocabulary used in recipes

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Lesson plan overview

Task	To learn the basic vocabulary used in recipes.
CLB level	CLB Stage I (CLB 1-3)
Delivery method	Online
Class size	10-15 students (vary the number of activities according to your class size)
Estimated time	1.5 to 3 hours (depending on whether you complete all parts of the lesson)
CLB Skills and Competencies	*Speaking:* Interacting with others Sharing information *Listening:* Interacting with others Comprehending information *Reading:* Comprehending information
Language focus	Learn the vocabulary needed to understand this topic. Complete the optional “Part B: Building Sentences” activities below to help your students move from understanding vocabulary to using that vocabulary to create simple sentences. Use the appropriate grammar structures and vocabulary to respond personally to the reflection questions. (Encourage students to respond in full sentences.)
Cultural focus	Students share favourite recipes, including some from their cultures. Students discuss how their cooking might have changed to accommodate Canada’s cold winter months.
Specific task learning objectives	Students will follow and understand a simple recipe for making a soup. Students learn vocabulary for some common soup ingredients. Students learn the difference between recipe ingredients and instructions. Students learn common cooking verbs used in recipe instructions (chopping, pouring, adding, etc.).
ESL Directions original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities?	This lesson includes video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities.
Resource attribution	ESL Directions original resources are marked below with an asterisk (*). Feel free to use these, but please give credit to ESL Directions.

Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice
This is a self-contained, complete lesson plan (about 1.5 hours) focused on vocabulary.

Part B: Building sentences
Part B takes your students further by giving them some tools to build simple sentences (using the vocabulary they learned in Part A).

Use Part B (about 1.5 hours) if you want to focus on:

Sentence production.

Specific lesson-related grammar points. Note: Every lesson also includes similar practice exercises for subjects, verbs, and objects — the basic building blocks of most English sentences.

Part C: Reflection Questions
These topic-related discussion questions work at the end of either part A or B.

Lesson plan

Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice

Warm-up: Introducing the topic and defining our terms

Today, we’re going to learn the vocabulary used in recipes.

What is a recipe?
What are some words you might see in a recipe?
We’re going to talk about cooking verbs. What is a verb? Can you give me some examples of a cooking verb?

Skill-building activities

Part 1: Ingredients: Vocabulary flashcards*
Part 2: Cooking instructions: Vocabulary flashcards*
A vegetable soup recipe* 🎥 (Watch a video using the lesson vocabulary.)

Skill-using tasks

Part 1, Ingredients:
- Quiz*
- Listen, read aloud, and answer comprehension questions* 🔊
Part 2, Instructions:
- Quiz*
- Listen, read aloud, and answer comprehension questions* 🔊

Assessment/review tasks

Part B: Building sentences

Find a list of all of the grammar-based activities on this website.

Introducing the topic

In this part of the lesson, we’re going to work on creating short sentences from the vocabulary we learned in Part A.

To help us, we’ll focus on:

Using ingredient nouns and instruction verbs
Using the imperative in recipes

Subject, verb, and object word order

Skill-building and skill-using activities

Verb tenses: Using ingredient nouns and instruction verbs

Quick guide: Using ingredient nouns and instruction verbs*
Let’s practice*
Using ingredient nouns and instruction verbs* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)

Using the imperative in recipes

Quick guide: Using the imperative in recipes*
Let’s practice*
Using the imperative form of the verb in recipes* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)

Word order in English sentences

Today, we’ll look at three important parts of English sentences.

What is a subject?
What is a verb?
What is an object?

Let’s practice!

Quick definitions: Subjects, verbs, and objects*
Unjumble the sentences*
Create sentences in subject/verb/object order*
Subject/verb/object explainer* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)

Assessment/review activities

Two friends make vegetable soup*🎥 (Watch a story using the lesson vocabulary and grammar points.)

Two friends make vegetable soup* 🔊 (Read the story, and identify the grammar points.)

Part C: Reflection questions

What are three words or phrases that you learned today?
Do you like to cook?
What are your favorite things to cook?
Do you use recipes when you cook?
What are some good recipes to make when the weather turns cold?
Have you had to make new new recipes during the fall and winter since coming to Canada?
Do you make soup?
Are there soups or dinners that you make every week?

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FOOD AND RESTAURANTS YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

Click on the small right arrow at the top of this video to play the videos or go to the YouTube Food and Restaurants Playlist.

COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBOURS WORDWALL ACTIVITIES

Wordwall is a very useful interactive lesson-creation site. If you sign up for a free Wordwall account, you will be able to see our “Community and neighbours” folder, which includes ESL Directions activities that you can add to your lessons.