How do you like your ice cream?

This A2–B1 ESL lesson is focused on the topic of ice cream and frozen desserts around the world. Students learn essential vocabulary related to food preparation, textures, and ingredients, explore the history of ice cream and global ice cream traditions, and practise speaking, reading, listening, and functional language through engaging classroom activities. Another lesson you might like is “There is always room for dessert!“.

Speaking:
The lesson begins with a lead-in discussion where students talk about ice cream flavours, personal preferences, and eating habits.

Vocabulary:
Students learn and practise key verbs related to ice cream preparation such as whip, melt, churn, stir, freeze, and scrape. They match definitions to words, complete controlled practice exercises, and use the vocabulary in context. The lesson also introduces useful nouns connected to ice cream (e.g. cones, scoops, freezer, cooler), helping learners build a strong lexical set around food and desserts.

Listening:
Students watch a short video about the history of ice cream called “How was ice cream invented?“, and complete comprehension tasks. They identify key historical facts, match information to people, and complete notes about important inventors.

Reading:
Students read a text about ice cream around the world, including gelato, mochi ice cream, kulfi, dondurma, soft serve, sorbet, and rolled ice cream. They answer comprehension questions and learn how different cultures use ingredients, techniques, and traditions to create unique frozen desserts.

Functional language:
Students complete a dialogue between a customer and a server at an ice cream shop and then role-play a dialogue, practising ordering, making choices, and responding politely.

For more speaking practice, you can use the printable conversation cards.