Stop food waste
Lesson plan overview
This ESL lesson plan for intermediate and upper-intermediate students aims to raise awareness of the issue of food waste. Students learn useful collocations, complete an awareness questionnaire, watch a video and are given plenty of opportunities to speak about this important environmental topic. You can combine it with the lessons: “Is a vegan diet the best?“, “Throwaway culture“, and “Cruise ships“.
Speaking: The worksheet starts with an awareness survey bringing students’ attention to the magnitude of the food waste problem. Then students talk about different types of food they are most likely to throw away uneaten.
Vocabulary: Students learn relevant vocabulary and collocations (e.g. surplus food, fussy eater, unsold food, get on board) by matching sentences with similar meaning. To practise these expressions, they complete 6 questions and discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.
Listening: Students watch a video “Canadians get creative in solving food waste problem”. They take notes about the different initiatives mentioned in the video. In the second listening exercise students are asked to complete extracts from the video with the words they hear. In a post-listening discussion they share their opinions about the information in the video.
Speaking: The last exercise is a checklist with measures to minimise our food waste. Students complete the checklist in pairs and talk about the different ways they can improve and waste less food.
Homework: 3 research topics are suggested which aim to develop the topic further. The topics, combined with the additional resources provided on theenglishflows.com provide plenty of extra opportunities for contact with topic-related vocabulary in order to reinforce and enrich it.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
All video-based ESL lesson plans include online pre-class activities, which are FREE and can be completed without registration. Perfect for teachers who wish to embrace the blended learning approach. By providing students with resources and engagement opportunities before the actual class session, educators can foster active participation, enhance comprehension, and optimise in-class discussions.
The pre-class activities are optional: if you choose not to assign them, or your students don’t complete them, it will not disturb the flow of the class. You can find and review the pre-class activities for this lesson plan here:
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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