After four lessons of full immersion in the fashion world (see my previous post here), the girls couldn't wait for this project, although I did have some concerns, since one of them was celiac and also diabetic — so care with the ingredients was essential. I decided to keep things simple and get the girls working straight after the introductory lesson.
The vocabulary covered menus, ingredients and cooking verbs; the grammar focused on the imperative and, again, the present continuous, along with a brief introduction to countable and uncountable nouns. The outcome was a cooking video (a series of short clips) showing the girls preparing their own recipes. Here's a brief account of the four lessons.
In lesson one, I let the girls loose on any cupboard or drawer in my kitchen, and asked them to set the table as they would in a restaurant. I then gave them a worksheet showing the correct setting and asked each of them to fix their own table and describe it to the class, with the other two correcting any mistakes. This required introducing some prepositional phrases (next to, in the centre, on the right/left, etc.), which I wrote on index cards and placed on the table, so the girls could focus on the table vocabulary rather than trying to memorise these straight away. Afterwards, I gave them a pizza menu (from a pizza franchise in London) and we sorted the ingredients into categories — vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy, other — before each girl created her own pizza. I played the waitress while they placed their orders, using simple phrases such as "Are you ready to order?", "What would you like to drink?" and "Would you like a starter?". They invented some wonderfully outlandish pizzas, and also ordered a starter and a dessert — a good test of whether they could manage ordering in a restaurant in English.
For lesson two, I prepared a Menu of the Day with the headings (starter, pasta, main course, dessert) and ingredients removed. The girls had to match each dish to its correct category and guess its ingredients; we clarified the answers as a class. They then had to "buy" their ingredients from me, playing shop assistant to their customers, using the phrases I need… and I'd like… (provided on a handout) — which also gave us a quick, natural way into countable versus uncountable nouns, helped by the fact that this mostly works the same way in Italian.
At this point, we could move on to the cooking phase. I'd prepared the ingredients for two starters in advance and demonstrated the preparation in five minutes; the girls then had fifteen minutes to do the same themselves. Once everything was ready, it was "ready, steady, go!" Afterwards, we photographed their creations and sent them to the parents, who voted for their favourites. The girls then took their starters home for their families to try.
Homework for the next lesson was to think up a recipe and write out the preparation procedure in English, using the imperative. On the back of the daily-menu worksheet, I'd listed the verbs commonly used to describe cooking methods, which the girls revised and drew on for their own recipes. They were also asked to do the shopping and bring in all the ingredients they'd need.
In lesson three, we began with a quick revision exercise: the girls' mothers had sent me photos of their fridges, and the girls had to describe the contents. This confirmed they still remembered the difference between countable and uncountable nouns. Next, I showed them two photos of my own fridge — with several items removed from the second — and they had to spot what was missing. We then moved on to their shopping bags: each girl pulled out her ingredients one by one, named them, and briefly described the cooking steps ahead. Once everyone had gathered the spoons, knives, bowls and other equipment they needed, we agreed a thirty-minute time limit and got started. I filmed them in two- to three-minute bursts and helped out where needed, encouraging them to answer "What are you doing now?" using the present continuous. Afterwards, we sat down to taste the dishes: one girl made pancakes (gluten-free, so our celiac classmate could try them too — a thoughtful touch I really appreciated), another made pasta with cream and ham (again gluten-free), and the third made an omelette with salad. Simple dishes, but the third recipe alone drew on a wide range of vocabulary.
The dishes were then scored from one to ten by all the "judges" — the girls and me — in the style of the original *Masterchef*, complete with cutlery, tasting and commentary; we also tallied the parents' votes for the most attractive presentation, sent to them by photo. Homework was to bring five muffins to the next lesson.
In lesson four, we quickly reviewed the recipes and results, then watched a fifteen-minute clip from an episode of Masterchef Junior US (14 November 2015) — the frosting round — followed by five comprehension questions:
- Who is competing?
- How many cupcakes do they have to frost?
- Who is the guest judge?
- How many minutes do they have?
- Who wins, and with how many cupcakes?
Remarkably, the girls answered all five correctly, except the exact number of cupcakes the eventual winner frosted (so, essentially, four and a half out of five). It's worth watching the clip yourself — the speech is far from easy to follow.
A month before this project, my sister, who lives in London, had sent me a parcel containing a cupcake-decorating kit with frosting and sprinkles, among other treats. So, as a final challenge, we held a cupcake-decorating competition: each girl decorated three cupcakes with frosting, Nutella and sprinkles.
The cupcakes went home too, and once again the parents voted, by photo, for the prettiest ones. In the end, there wasn't a single winner of "Masterchef Junior Palermo 2017" — one of the mothers suggested declaring all three girls joint winners, and since they'd all had such fun, I happily agreed.
I'll leave you to judge how effective this project was: the girls didn't write a single word during the lessons, yet had to remember the names of every utensil, dish, ingredient, recipe and action verb involved — and explain, in a foreign language, what they were doing while actually cooking.
I'll also let you judge how rewarding it was: the girls brought home a starter on one occasion and a dessert on another, and their families sent me a flood of grateful messages. I emailed every mother at the end of the project, describing what we'd done and praising the girls — all of which did wonders for their confidence. Motivation was sky-high throughout: one girl stayed up late writing and rehearsing her recipe; another, who'd had three ideas, proudly presented her chosen speciality — pancakes, made gluten-free.
Definitely a project I'll be repeating.