Theme: Chocolate
Lexical area: Food

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
In the UK the average person eats a total of 14 kilograms of confectionery each year. A big part of that quota is chocolate!

If you are a big chocolate fan it may be one of the things you’re really missing by living abroad, or you may have discovered some new types of chocolate in your host country. This could be a nice way to start off this lesson about chocolate. You could also tie in some of these activities to a lesson about Easter. Chocolate Easter eggs are a part of the Easter celebrations for most British people.

Task 1 asks students to think of their favourite sweet and savoury food. Task 2 is a quiz about chocolate and Task 3 a quick survey for students to do in groups to find out who’s the biggest chocoholic. Task 4 is a reading task for elementary level students. Task 5 is based around a recipe for chocolate krispie cakes and leads in to a ‘beep dictation’ and Task 6 is a group task for students to invent their own chocolate bar.

1. Sweet or savoury?
You will probably have to explain the meaning of the word savoury to the students. They can then think about their top three sweet foods and their top three savoury foods. Chocolate will no doubt appear on somebody’s (if not most students’) lists and can be used as a lead- in to the other tasks.

Task 1 Sweet or savoury?

• Which do you prefer, sweet or savoury food?
• Think of your favourite three sweet foods and your favourite three savoury foods and write them in the table.

• Which do you prefer to eat?
• Compare your answers with a friend.

2. Chocolate trivia quiz
This is a quick quiz which students can either do individually or in groups. You could run it as a team competition.
Answers:

1. a ( made in March 2000 for the Eurochocolate exhibition in Turin)
2. c (apparently 50 Kit Kats are eaten every second in the UK!)
3. b (Swiss people eat an average of 10 kilograms per person per year. British come a close second)
4. a (made in Barcelona in 1991. It was eaten afterwards!)
5. c
6. b
7. a (women buy 42% of all chocolate, 32% by children and 26% by men)
8. b

Task 2 Chocolate trivia quiz
How much do you know about chocolate? Do this quiz to find out.

3. Are you a chocoholic?
Students work in groups of four. First check they understand all the questions. Then, they can complete the first column with their own answers before asking three friends the questions. When they have completed the table the groups can discuss who’s the biggest chocoholic in the group. They shouldn’t take it too seriously!

Task 3 Are you a chocoholic?
Work in groups of four. First, answer the questions yourself and then ask three friends the questions and find out which group member is the biggest chocoholic.

• How many ‘yes’ answers do you have?
• Who has the most ‘yes’ answers?

4. Website message board
This is a reading activity for very low levels. Students read the texts and put them in order from the person who eats the most chocolate to the person who eats the least. If the students have studied comparatives and superlatives they could go on to make sentences like ‘Tony eats the most chocolate and Lynn eats more chocolate than Cathy’.

Answers: Tony – Lynn – Cathy – Julian

Students could then go on to write a short text about themselves or someone they know.

Task 4 Website message board
A food website asked people this question:

“Is chocolate an important part of your diet?” Here are the replies of five people:

Read the replies and put them in order from the person who eats the most chocolate to the person who eats the least.

5. Chocolate krispie cakes beep dictation
Most British children have made chocolate krispie cakes at some time. They used to be a classic for children’s birthday parties. This activity is for younger, lower level students.

Cut up the seven stages of the method and give to a group of students. You could mime the actions of making the cakes and students put the method into the correct order. Explain the words that students may not know such as melt and mix. (If you want to do a class that students will never forget and you have access to a microwave and some support from another teacher – why not make the krispie cakes with your students?!)

When students are familiar with the method and they understand it, try a ‘beep dictation’ activity. Read out one stage of the method and substitute an important word with “beep”. Students should write down the missing word. Make the “beep” long and change your intonation when you’re saying it.

For example:

• “ Break the beep into pieces” Answer: chocolate
• “Put the pieces of chocolate into a beep” Answer: bowl
• “ Beep the chocolate in a microwave” Answer: melt

You may feel silly doing this at first but when students get the idea you can use ‘beep dictations’ in many different ways and it can be quite fun!

Task 5 Chocolate krispie cakes beep dictation
Ingredients:

• A big bar of chocolate
• A packet of rice krispies or cornflakes
• Paper cake cases

Method:

• Break the chocolate into pieces.
• Put the pieces of chocolate into a bowl
• Melt the chocolate in a microwave
• Mix rice krispies or cornflakes into the melted chocolate
• Put a spoonful of the mixture into the paper cake cases
• Put the paper cases into the fridge for an hour
• Eat the chocolate krispie cakes!

• Beep dictation
  Now listen to your teacher and see how much of the recipe you can remember.

6. Design your own chocolate bar
This is a creative task for younger students. If you can, bring in some chocolate bars and ask the students what the ingredients are (nuts, caramel, coconut, toffee, rice krispies, biscuit, raisin etc) then ask them if they like the designs of the wrappers. Do they think the design is important for a new bar?

Task 6 Design your own chocolate bar
Work in groups to design a new chocolate bar.

• First decide on the ingredients (1)
• Draw the chocolate bar (2)
• Then think of a name (3)
• Design a wrapper for the new bar (4)

• Present your new chocolate bar to the other groups
• Which one do you think would be the tastiest?
• Which one would sell the most?

Internet links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/chocolate/
This is a BBC site with lots of information about chocolate.

http://www.cadbury.co.uk/EN/CTB2003/
This Cadbury site has games, recipes, nutritional information etc.

http://www.foodreference.com/html/fchocolate.html
This site has lots of interesting facts about chocolate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,663795,00.html
This is an article about the popularity of white chocolate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,864750,00.html This is an article about how Mars tried to sell chocolate bars as a health food.

BY Jo Budden