Planning a picnic

This A2-B1 spring ESL lesson focuses on planning a picnic, helping students develop practical English skills while discussing food, drinks, locations, and activities. Learners expand vocabulary related to food, beverages, and picnic essentials, and learn about countable and uncountable nouns. Find more spring lessons here: Spring lessons

Activities Overview:

Speaking – Lead-in Discussion: Students activate prior knowledge by discussing questions about parks, picnic locations, food preferences, and fun activities.

Vocabulary – Food, Drinks, and Picnic Items: Learners identify and categorize common foods and drinks suitable for a picnic. Activities include sorting items into sweet and savoury, and exploring key picnic equipment such as napkins, cups, blankets, and coolers, and creating collocations for common picnic activities. Students also add new food and activity types to build confidence in describing picnic setups. Using guided expressions, students discuss what foods are appropriate for a picnic, and which items are essential for a good picnic experience.

Listening: Students watch a video called “Picnic ideas“, taking notes on food choices, preparation steps, and additional touches such as flowers or tableware. The video is broken down into 3 parts.

Grammar – Countable/Uncountable Nouns and Quantifiers: Students learn the difference between countable and uncountable nouns and practice using “some,” “any,” and “a lot of” in context. Activities include identifying examples in dialogues, completing fill-in-the-blank exercises, and applying grammar rules when discussing food quantities and group needs.

Speaking: Planning a picnic. Students make suggestions and negotiate food, location, and activity choices for a diverse group of friends. This section fosters collaborative problem-solving and polite disagreement, preparing learners for real-life planning conversations.

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