Fruit sheet
Learning outcomes:
Students:
- Name the 11 fruits
- Make statements of preference.
Purpose of learning experience
- Students can build a vocabulary for stating preferences and degrees of preference.
- Students’ build confidence expressing their preferences to interact with others to have their needs met.
- Personal statements can start with I like... I don’t like… I want… I don’t want…e.g. I like apples, I don’t like bananas, I want a pear, I don’t want any strawberries.
- Pronouns can indicate preferences in others. You like... she/he likes…, they want…
Printable: Fruit sheet
Making connections
Being able to tell other people what you like and don’t like to eat is important for children to take care of themselves and respond to others. To explore degrees of preference, students use fruit nouns. For example, really like, love or not keen on. Linking fruit nouns to preferences supports student agency during snack times and helps them to learn to use sentences to meet their own needs.
For some year levels this is a cross-curricular unit with English and Maths and includes identifying words from First Nations Australians’ languages relevant to a topic. Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
Culture
First Nations Australian societies are diverse and have distinct cultural expressions such as language, customs and beliefs. As First Nations Peoples of Australia, they have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural expressions, while also maintaining the right to control, protect and develop culture as Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property.
Early Years Learning framework
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.
Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work
Lesson activity
Fruit salad
Plan/implement
Print and cut out the fruit images into small cards, place them in a bowl to make ‘fruit salad’.
Model language with a group sitting in a circle or as part of play in the home corner.
Here is some fruit salad, what fruit do you want?
Choose a fruit card and model the single word. For example, ‘banana’.
Model the sentence structure. I like bananas, I want a banana.
If you select a cut piece of fruit, say, I want some banana.
Pass the bowl to a child to select a fruit card.
Encourage the child/ren to express their preference in a sentence.
Observations / assessment opportunities
What word does the child use when they select a fruit card?
Do they use Standard Australian English sentence structure; I like <fruit>, I want a/some <fruit>?
Language focus
Apple, banana, pear, papaya, grapes, strawberries, orange, mango, pineapple, chilli, watermelon.
I like <fruit>.
I want a <fruit>.
I want some <fruit>.
Community Languages
Pair children with peers who share the same language to increase confidence.
Give them bowls or plates to put their cards on.
Encourage the children to talk about the fruits they choose to put of their plates. Do they like the same fruits?
Foundation Curriculum alignment
English: AC9EFLA02
explore different ways of using language to express preferences, likes and dislikes
Lesson activity
State your preference
Plan/implement
Introduce the activity by reading What fruit do you like?
Students sit in a circle, place the fruit cards in the middle so everyone can see them.
Point to a fruit card and model the language and the tone for your preference for example, ‘A banana, I like bananas’.
Put your hand up if you like bananas. Say, ‘I like bananas’.
Put you hand up if you love bananas. Say, ‘I love bananas!’
Make sure you model a tonal difference for like and love.
Shuffle and turn the cards face down.
Ask a student to turn over a card and state their preference.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Does the student use a degree of preference?
Does the student use tone of voice to express the degree of preference?
Language focus
Apple, banana, pear, papaya, grapes, strawberries, orange, mango, pineapple, chilli, watermelon
I don’t like <fruit>.
I’m not keen on <fruit>.
I like <fruit>.
I really like <fruit>.
I love <fruit>.
Community Languages
Hold up each fruit card and ask the students to name the emotion in their own language before you place it face down on the floor.
Year 1 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E1LA02
explore language to provide reasons for likes, dislikes and preferences
Lesson activity
Fruit salad book
Plan/implement
You could introduce the activity by reading the What fruit do you like? book. Talk about the adjectives, the words used to describe fruit in the book.
Model a sentence to demonstrate the language for providing a reason for preference.
Write it on the board. For example, ‘I love strawberries because they are red and sweet.’ Underline because.
On the board;
- Write a reference list of preference words in order of best to worst- I love, I really like, I like, I don’t like, I really don’t like.
- Write a reference list of fruit nouns, if needed.
- Brainstorm and write a reference list of adjectives to describe fruits.
Give each student two or more fruit images.
Students stick the image to paper and write a sentence to say if they like or do not like the fruit and why. If they are using more than two images, they could create their own Fruit salad book.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can the student express the degree of preference with their tone of voice when reading their sentences?
Does the student use ‘because’ to introduce the reason for likes or dislikes?
Does the student use comparative words (adjectives) to express the degree of preference between the fruit images, for example, more, better, less?
Language focus
Apple, banana, pear, papaya, grapes, strawberries, orange, mango, pineapple, chilli, watermelon
I like <fruit noun> because they are <adjective>
Community languages
Find out the community language words for the fruit images and write these on the board.
Encourage the students to practice saying and writing the fruit nouns in community language with the fruit images.
Year 2 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E2LY08
understand that images add to or multiply the meanings of a text
Lesson activity
A big bowl of fruit
Plan/implement
Give each student a copy of the fruit sheet.
Explain that they are going to tell a story about the big bowl of fruit. They can choose what to put in their bowl and how many images of each fruit. They can cut out the pictures and draw their own, if they would like to add more, or some fruits that are not included on the fruit sheet.
Each student then writes or tells the story of their big bowl of fruit.
My fruit salad has bananas because I love bananas they are at the top of the bowl so I can eat them first. I didn’t put in any pawpaw because I don’t know what that tastes like.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can the student create a picture to build meaning to the story they tell?
Does the student use a reason to explain why the chose the fruit?
Can the student connect and develop ideas logically?
Language focus
Apple, banana, pear, papaya, grapes, strawberries, orange, mango, pineapple, chilli, watermelon
I like/love <fruit> because <description of reason>.
Community Languages
Talk about ways community words can be used alongside English words for emphasis. Students can present their story in English and use gestures and community language words to highlight important information.
Year 3 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E3LA05
understand how the language of evaluation and emotion, such as modal verbs, can be varied to be more or less forceful
Mathematics: AC9M3ST03
investigate how success, challenge, setbacks and failure strengthen resilience and identities in a range of contexts
Lesson activity
Our favourite fruit
Plan/implement
Give each student a fruit sheet.
Ask the students to look at the fruit sheet and name the fruit they like the most.
Students cut out the fruit cards and order the fruits from their favourite, the fruit they like the most to the fruit they like the least.
They could group them into ones they like the same amount.
Ask the students to explain their choice to the whole group. I like strawberries the most because Aunty has some growing in a pot. I don’t like bananas at all because the smell makes me feel sick.
Make an ‘Our favourite fruit graph’.
List the names of the fruits along the bottom axis.
Each student sticks their favourite fruit card to the chart to form the bars for the graph. The tallest bar visually demonstrates which fruit is liked by the greatest number of students.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Does the student number the fruit images from 1 to 11?
Does the student use their ordered list to explain how they feel about the different fruits?
Does the student demonstrate groups in listing their fruit preference?
Can the students explain the class graph?
Language focus
Apple, banana, pear, papaya, grapes, strawberries, orange, mango, pineapple, chilli, watermelon
My favourite…
I like <fruit> the most.
Numbers 1 to 11
many, more, most, greatest
Community Languages
Students can explain how they ordered their fruits in their first language.
Label the graph in community language words for fruits and numbers. You may like to include community language words for more, many, few, none.