This lesson offers a variety of activities based on growing or gathering your own food. The warmer introduces the topic of gardens. There is a picture dictation that builds on garden vocabulary. Then students read about current British gardening and food foraging trends and give their opinion on these trends. The optional extension activities are a role play about allotments and a question writing and discussion activity. There are differentiation opportunities throughout the plan; including a text at two different levels. This is a low print lesson.
Aims:
• To learn vocabulary related to gardening
• To practise listening skills
• To practise reading skills
• To practise speaking skills
Age/ Level: 9-12, 13-17 (CEFR A2-B1)
Time: 55 minutes + optional extension activities
Materials:
- Lesson plan
- Reading text (A2 and B1 versions)
- Role play cards
- Warmer (10 mins)
- Play the snail game with the word ‘garden’
- Draw a snail in the corner of the board and draw 5 leaves on its right side in a row (see example below).
- Put 6 dashes on the board to represent the word garden. E.g. _ _ _ _ _ _
- Put learners into small groups. Tell learners they have to guess the word before the snail eats all the leaves. They guess the letters one by one. The snail can eat a leaf every time they say an incorrect letter.
- Ask the first group to guess a letter in the word. If they get a correct letter write it above the dash. If they say a letter than isn’t in the word (such as B) delete one of the leaves.
- Learners can guess the whole word at any point.
- If all the leaves have been ‘eaten’ declare the snail the winner.
- Brainstorming (10 minutes)
- Write garden in the middle of the board. Elicit a few words that learners know related to garden. E.g. flower, plant, bee
- Then ask groups to write as many garden-related words as possible in 2 minutes.
- Elicit words from the groups and write them on the board
- Ask learners to write down any words their group missed in their notebooks.
- Picture dictation (10 minutes)
- Tell the students to draw a large rectangle in their notebook.
- Explain that you are going to describe your garden and that they have to listen and draw it in their rectangle or write notes.
- You could use/adapt this description:
I’ve got a small square garden. The centre of the garden is covered in grass. There are some apple trees at the end of the garden. On the left there are some flowers. On the right there is a vegetable patch. In the vegetable patch I grow carrots, potatoes and green beans.
- Now draw your garden on the board or hold up a prepared sketch for students to compare their drawings with.
- Higher levels could now invent a garden (they may all live in flats and not have gardens) to dictate to a partner. Ask lower levels to say what they like/dislike about your garden.
Note: If you haven’t got a garden describe a garden you know. Keep it simple and use some of the vocabulary from the introduction task. Allowing both text and drawings adds an element of differentiation.- Reading (10 minutes)
Note: There is an A2 and B1 version of the text for differentiation purposes. You can decide which text the learners read. The overall information is the same.
- Ask students if they grow food or plants at home or in a garden. Ask if anyone has ‘green fingers’ and explain that this expression describes a person who is good at growing plants.
- Tell them that they are going to read about three activities related to gardens, food and plants.
- Before they read, ask them to look at the titles of the three paragraphs and say what (if anything) they know about these activities. Ask students to read and answer the 3 questions.
Answers: 1 guerrilla gardening, 2 foraging, 3 allotment gardening
- Poll (5 minutes)
- Tell learners that you are going to do a quick poll about gardening.
- Explain that you will read out some statements and if they agree with them they hold up their right hand. If they disagree they fold their arms. If they are unsure they put their hands on their desk.
- Read out the following statements. Allow time for learners to react. You could record their reactions on the board to discuss later. E.g. 1. 12 agreed.
Statements
1. Everyone needs a garden
2. It’s a good idea for local governments to grow vegetables instead of flowers in city centres
3. Foraging for food is better than shopping at the supermarket
Note: You could get learners to write Agree, Disagree and Don’t know on pieces of paper. They then hold up one of the papers to express their opinion. Allowing the ‘don’t know’ option can take the pressure off learners who need time to make decisions.- Discussion (10 minutes)
- Go back over the questions and start a whole class discussion. E.g. Why is a garden important for people? Is there a good place where local people could grow vegetables?
- Extension 1: Role play ( 25 minutes) - Optional
- Tell the students that they are members of the London allotment society. The society has one allotment to donate to the person who needs it most.
- Put students in pairs and give each member of the pair a different information sheet (A or B).
- Student A must put forward the case for David to have the allotment and student B must do the same for Asha. Allow them 5-10 minutes of thinking time.
- Encourage students to use the information on the sheet but not to read directly from it. You could demonstrate the role play first with a stronger student.
- To round up the activity have a class vote on who your students think is the most deserving candidate.
- Extension 2: Discussion (35 minutes) - Optional
- Elicit two discussion questions and write them on the board. E.g. Do you think guerrilla gardening should be legal? Which vegetables would you like to grow?
- Put learners into groups. Give each group a blank piece of paper.
- Ask them to write five discussion questions for another group. Allow 5-10 minutes.
- Swop the questions so that each group has a new set of questions to discuss.
- Tell groups to discuss each question and give a reason for their answer.
- Ask a few groups to share their discussion.
- References and useful links
- Article about popularity of allotments: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4776325.stm
- Tips for growing vegetables in small spaces: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/digin/your_space/
- Video interview a guerrilla gardener in London:. https://youtu.be/Gpn62XUS9OM?si=jWHbAiGhPCbVqEOH
- Brief history of guerrilla gardening: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8548005.stm
- Site about social enterprise: https://makinglandwork.wordpress.com/
- Tips for getting the most out of a role play: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/planning-lessons-and-courses/articles/role-play