LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

About the authors

Angela teaches ESL and Melody teaches Spanish at Mocksville Elementary.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

  • identify numbers and words to use in an everyday setting.
  • follow a grocery list and “pick up” items listed.
  • color in the appropriate number of items for each food category on the activity sheet.
  • compare quantities of items and add with the teacher.
  • answer question “Who has more?” when comparing 2 students.
  • add total of 2 classmates’ groceries.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

40 minutes

Materials/resources

Pre-activities

Review grocery items and categories such as: milk, meat, vegetables, fruit, and bread.

Activities

  1. Print out small grocery lists.
  2. Place a list in each student’s bag.
  3. Place brown bags with students’ names on desks prior to beginning of class.
  4. Teacher also places food shapes in various places around the room (not hidden).
  5. Students are instructed to take out grocery lists and look at them. Teacher asks if they have seen grocery lists before and for what they are used.
  6. Teacher holds up a meat cut-out and instructs the class to repeat the word “meat.”
  7. Teacher then instructs class to copy the first word on their grocery list (which is meat).
  8. Teacher continues this process with the rest of the words (bread, veggie, fruit, and milk).
  9. Afterwards, teacher says, “You all have grocery lists because today we will be going shopping.” Teacher informs class that each list is different and has a different number beside each category. When instructed they will have 3 minutes to find the correct number on their grocery list of each food cut-out. Reassure the students that they may not necessarily find all of the food in the time limit but that’s okay.
  10. Send students off with brown bags and lists. After 3 minutes, teacher will flash the lights or signal in some way that they must return to their seats.
  11. Once students are seated, teacher will use a transparency of the activity sheet (see Graphing Activity Sheet attachment) and her own pre-made bag to demonstrate how to add the items for each category and color in appropriate column.
  12. Students will be given the Graphing Activity Sheet and must count the number of milks, breads, fruits, veggies, and meats and color in appropriate number on the sheet.
  13. When they have finished, teacher will call on 2 students. Teacher asks, “How many meats do you have?” Students responds, “I have __ meats.” Once teacher has two amounts, she says and writes: “Danny has 4 meats and Gabriela has 2 meats.”
  14. Teacher poses question: “Who has more?” Teacher calls on a student to give the answer. “Great, you’re right! Danny has more.”
  15. Teacher repeats: “Danny has 4 meats and Gabriela has 2 meats. How many do they have in total?” Teacher writes 4 + 2 = on the board. Teacher encourages Danny to hold up his 4 meats and Gabriela to hold up her 2. As a class, everyone counts to 6. Teacher writes 6 after the = on the board.
  16. Continue with a few more examples for each category.
  17. “Haven’t we had fun shopping today? Now you can help your mom or dad with their shopping list!”
  18. Put up transparency of the song, “We’re Going to Buy Food Today.” Instruct students to hold up the correct food item and wave it around as we sing the song together.
  19. Sing song to the tune of “Mary had a Little Lamb.” Teacher says, “Great job singing kids!!”

Assessment

  • Check to see that correct number of foods are chosen and placed into each bag.
  • Check Let’s graph groceries graph sheet.
  • Listen for students to answer “More” or “Less” when asked.
  • Listen for students to provide answer to math addition sentence.

Supplemental information

  • Make sure that ESL students know that grocery store and supermarket are synonyms as well as grocery list, shopping list, grocery cart, shopping cart.
  • The shopping lists attachment at the bottom contains 4 different lists for native speakers and 2 different lists for ESL students.
  • Veggies, milk, bread, fruit, and meat are the names of the attachments used for food that is placed around room.
  • Let’s graph groceries attachment is the graph used for native speakers and Let’s graph groceries #2 attachment is the graph used for ESL students (it includes pictures).

Modifications

  1. Model how to use shopping list and look for food for ESL students.
  2. Give ESL students the different Let’s graph groceries sheet #2 so that they can see the picture and not only the word.
  3. Allow student to point to answers (using non-verbal communication) to respond.
  4. When asking ESL student “How many ____ do you have?” be sure to show the picture again of that food item.
  5. Model how to respond: “I have ___ meats, fruits, etc.”
  6. Allow ESL students to make association between picture and food name again before singng the song.

Alternative assessments

  • Listen for students to use the phrase “I have” correctly.
  • Make sure student was able to write first and last name on Let’s Graph Groceries” Activity Sheet and Shopping List.
  • Watch for student to hold up correct food instead of singing all the words to the song.

Critical vocabulary

milk, meat, veggie, vegetable, fruit, bread, total, use of he/she has, use of I have, plurals of foods, add, color in, shopping list

Comments

This plan was developed during the English Language Development Standard Course of Study lesson planning institutes hosted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and LEARN NC, June and July, 2004. It includes specific strategies, instructional modifications, and alternative assessments which make this lesson accessible to limited English proficient students. Please note that this lesson has been aligned with the goals and objectives of the N.C. English Language Development standards.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Development (2005)

Grade 1

  • Goal 1. Listening:
    • Objective NH 1.02: Understand and follow one-step and two-step directions and instructions with modeling and prompting when spoken slowly and distinctly.
  • Goal 3. Reading:
    • Objective NH 3.08: Draw and label pictures related to a familiar story, topic, or experience.
    • Objective NH 3.09: Distinguish initial and final sounds in one-syllable words.
    • Objective NH 3.11: Identify a few high-frequency words in environmental print and familiar text.
  • Goal 2. Speaking:
    • Objective NH 2.02: Use a variety of non-verbal communication strategies in addition to simple words and phrases to express own ideas or thoughts with modeling and prompting.
  • Goal 4. Writing:

Mathematics (2004)

Grade 1

  • Goal 1. Writing: Number and Operations - The learner will read, write, and model whole numbers through 99 and compute with whole numbers.
    • Objective 1.04: Create, model, and solve problems that use addition, subtraction, and fair shares (between two or three).
  • Goal 4. Writing: Data Analysis and Probability - The learner will understand and use data and simple probability concepts.
    • Objective 4.01: Collect, organize, describe and display data using line plots and tallies.