Yummy Yummy I’ve got food in my tummy

Introduction:

These are some activities you can do with lower intermediate + students to review countable / uncountable nouns and quantifiers. Students divide the nouns into categories, make a shopping list and use the language in a role-play.

Objectives:

To review countable and uncountable nouns.
To review common quantifiers used with countable and uncountable nouns.
To give learners an opportunity to use the target language in a role-play situation.

Preparation:

Cut up Worksheet A (countable / uncountable nouns) and Worksheet B (quantifiers).

Procedure:

Elicit examples of countable and uncountable food items from students and put them in two categories on the board.
Divide the students into pairs and hand out each pair one set of countable and uncountable nouns cards (Worksheet A) for students to divide them into two columns: countable and uncountable.
Correct and provide feedback.
Elicit examples of quantifiers they could use with countable nouns, e.g. a few, many, several, some, a lot of, a large number of etc.
In their pairs, students now think of an appropriate quantifier they could use with each of the uncountable nouns on their list, e.g. a bottle of oil, etc.
Give each pair of students the set of quantifier cards (Worksheet B) for them to match the quantifiers to the uncountable nouns.
Correct and provide feedback.
Students now choose 6 food items from their lists and move all the other food cards aside. Using only these six ingredients, they must think of a dish they would make and discuss it with their partner.
With this dish in mind, students then make a shopping list, e.g. a bag of flour, six eggs, a kilo of oranges, etc.
Divide the class into two groups, shopkeepers and shoppers.
Divide ONE set of countable / uncountable nouns cards (worksheet A) equally between all the shopkeepers.
Using their lists, the shoppers must try to buy the ingredients they need to prepare their dish from the shopkeepers. If they use their ingredients correctly in a sentence with the correct quantifier, they keep the card, e.g. Can I have half a kilo of apples, please? Can I have a bottle of olive oil, please?
When the shoppers have completed their shopping lists, the students swap roles and repeat.