A Mini Unit on Fruits and Vegetables

1. A Mini Unit on Fruits and Vegetables E. J. Glatt

2. Introduction • Topic • Fruits and vegetables • Likes and dislikes • Presentation of likes and dislikes

3. The Students • Grade 4 • Rosh Ha’Ayin • Bet Sefer Afek • Experimental ecology school • Mamlachti school • Middle class Socioeconomic level

4. Purpose of the Unit By the end of the mini-unit, students will be able to: • Name and identify at least 5 different types of fruits and 5 different types of vegetables • ask and answerquestions about food and express their likes and dislikes about food • present information about their friends' likes and dislikes of food.

5. Standards/Benchmarks • Domain: Social Interaction: foundation level • Students interact and convey simple messages. Students interact using basic vocabulary and comprehensible, but not necessarily accurate, syntax. Benchmarks: • Ask and answer simple questions about familiar topics and everyday situations such as family, school, personal interests. • express feelings, likes and dislikes.

6. Standards/Benchmarks Domain:Presentation: foundations level • Students present information about personal topics, orally and in writing, using basic organizational skills. • Pupils use basic vocabulary and simple syntax. Benchmarks: • 1. Design a means for collecting information such as a questionnaire, and list the results.

7. Lesson 1: The Fruit Objective: • Students will be able to identify and name 5 types of fruit. Time: 30 minutes Materials: • Flash cards of different kinds of fruit • “Food Cards,” cue-cards or pieces of paper with the names of different fruit on them. On the reverse side should be a picture of the food or the Hebrew translation on the back. One for every student. At least 9 or 10 should have the names of fruit on them. • fruit worksheet • pencils and paper for each student

8. Procedure Motivator: Sing and explain the song "Apples, peaches" (in the tune of "Tell me when your birthday comes") "Apples, peaches, pears and plums, oranges, bananas, here we come. Grapefruits, mangos and a guava, Raspberries, blueberries and papaya."

9. Procedure • Show the student flashcards of various fruit. • Say, for example, “an apple is a fruit, an orange is a fruit.” • Have students repeat after you. • Hand out the “food cards.” • Students now go around the classroom, and must find and list in their notebooks the names of five fruit with their Hebrew translations and/or pictures.

10. Anticipated Problems and Solutions • 30 Students walking around a cramped room can be a problem. • The students must first be told that they must only walk quietly. • Have a cue for the students to stop moving and listen.

11. Assessment • Ask random students to name a fruit. • Ask students to quiz each other on foods, whether or not they are fruits and observe.

12. Reinforcment • Fruit worksheet

13. Reflection of lesson 1 • It was slightly difficult to control the students moving around the room. • Students also yelled across the room telling their friends who had the fruit cards. • Most, however, were more familiar with the vocabulary at the end of the lesson. • Next time, I disallowed any talking higher than a whisper.

14. Summary of other lessons • Learning vegetable vocabulary • Differentiating between fruits, vegetables, and other foods.

15. Summary of the other lessons • Vegetable vocabulary • Likes and dislikes • Survey

16. Summary of other lessons • Presentation of survey results • Chart • Oral presentation

17. Other songs: Vegetable song • "Carrots, peas and broccoli, • Vegetables are good for me,

18. Corn and peppers on my plate, • Potatoes, onions, it's not too late,

19. "Carrots, peas and broccoli, • Vegetables are good for me,

20. Other songs: I like chicken, I like liver Meow Mix,Meow Mix please deliver

21. General Reflection • I thought that the project was a good way to introducing the children to expressing their feelings and their own likes and dislikes as well as the likes and dislikes of others. • The presentation portion was less than a smashing success ( despite a small listening task)…… • but the children enjoyed the songs and the vocabulary of many of the students was greatly increased by the end of the unit. • I also found that the confidence level, in terms of speaking in English, was increased for some of the students.

22. General Reflection I think, while it does not seem that this project involved a large amount of risk-taking, I thought that a substitute teacher getting the students away from their textbooks was risk-taking enough (the teacher I replaced temporarily only used the textbooks in the large classes in Rosh Ha’Ayin).