Teaching English Food and Nutrition: ESL Primary School Resources
During my second month as an auxiliar de conversación in Spain, I taught my primary school students about food and nutrition in English. Specifically, we focused on the differences between carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and vitamins, as well as the functions of each nutrient for our bodies.
Here, I’ve compiled the materials I used for this topic with third grade classes, but I think a lot of this would be applicable to the second, fourth, and fifth grades, too. I incorporate interactive activities into my lesson plans, so you will find songs, games, and other English speaking activities for primary students.
Complete English Lesson Plan
Food and Nutrition (Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, and Vitamins)
To download the ESL lesson plan above as either Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint, click here.
English Games & Activities:
Ask students to name foods that contain each type of nutrients! This is a great way to get the whole class to participate and speak English. Simply write one of the nutrients on the board and ask students to raise their hands to say types of food that contain that type of nutrient. (BONUS: To get them to practice English a bit more, you can require students to respond in full sentences. Write an example sentence on the board. For instance, you could write, “Bread contains carbohydrates.” Teach them that the key word here is “contains.”)
Name that Nutrient! See my Complete Food and Nutrition Lesson Plan for Third Grade Primary for a picture-based game where students must tell the teacher what nutrients are in the pictured food.
English Videos:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: This youtube video has a great reading of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a great story for thinking about healthy and unhealthy foods. (BONUS: For an extra activity, pause the video whenever the caterpillar eats something and ask students 1) what nutrient it contains and 2) if the food is healthy or unhealthy.)
The Food Pyramid Song: This song can be used to review the different food groups and how much of each group are healthy to eat. (BONUS: Repeat the song, pausing after each food group to ask students what nutrient is found in those types of food.)
I hope you and your students enjoy using these ESL resources to teach and learn about food and nutrition in English!
To view more of my English lesson plans and other resources, click the button below.
