Introduction: 

These are activities for upper intermediate students to introduce and practise food idioms. Students complete the sentences with the missing expressions, write their own definitions and play a taboo game.

Level: B2 +

Time: 60 minutes

Objectives:

1. To introduce food idioms and expressions.
2. To write definitions of the new expressions.
3. To play a taboo game to reinforce the new vocabulary in a new, playful context.

Materials:

1. The proof is in the pudding worksheet, one per student.
2. Three sets of taboo cards per pair, cut up and shuffled.

Procedure:

1. Write the beginning of the following sentences on the board and ask students to complete them:

• My favourite dessert is…
• I typically eat desserts…
• One of the countries I often associate with great desserts is…

2. Hand students The proof is in the pudding worksheet.
3. Individually, students have a go at completing the sentences with the missing expressions (Exercise 1).
4. Monitor and allow them to read and guess some of the answers, before putting them into groups of three or four to discuss and compare.
5. Check the answers as a class – you can make this more competitive by asking each team for their answer and awarding a point for the correct answer.
6. Ask the students to write their own definitions of the expressions in Part 2.
7. Monitor and offer feedback.
8. Put the students into pairs and give them a set of taboo cards.
9. Place the cards face down on the table and ask them to set a timer for one minute (they can use their phones, or you could use a timer as a class).
10. For higher levels, the first player takes the first card and must explain the expression on the top of the card without using the three taboo words in the middle of the card. If a taboo word is used the student whose turn it is must put the current card into the discard pile.
11. For lower levels, they can use the words as prompts for their partner to guess the correct expression.
12. Play continues for one minute and the players swap. The continued repetition of the same 12 expressions will enforce their understanding.
13. The winner is the student who has the most correctly guessed taboo cards at the end of the game.

Fast finishers:

1. Choose 3 idioms and in writing try to predict what the origins of the expressions might be. Once you have finished do some research to find out if you were correct.

Related posts:

A piece of cake or a hard nut to crack?

Yummy Yummy I’ve got food in my tummy

P.S. Thank you for putting this activity to the test Stu. It was a pleasure to observe your class.