Fruit sheet
Learning outcomes
- Students name fruits.
- Students make statements of preference.
Purpose of learning experience
- Students build a vocabulary for stating preferences and degrees of preference.
- Students build confidence in expressing their preferences to interact with others to have their needs met.
- Students understand that personal statements can start with ‘I like ...’, ‘I don’t like …’, ‘I want …’ or ‘I don’t want …’, for example, ‘I like apples’, ‘I don’t like bananas’, ‘I want a pear’ or ‘I don’t want any strawberries.'
- Students understand that pronouns can indicate preferences in others, for example, ‘You like ...’, ‘She/he likes …’, ‘They want …’
Printable: Fruit Sheet
Making connections
Being able to tell other people what they like and don’t like to eat is important to enable students to take care of themselves and respond to others. To explore degrees of preference, students use fruit nouns and preference words and expressions, such as ‘really like’, ‘love’ or ‘not keen on’. Linking fruit nouns to preferences supports student agency during snack times and helps them learn to use sentences to meet their own needs.
For some year levels, this is a cross-curriculum unit with English and Mathematics.
The activities include identifying words from First Nations Australians’ languages relevant to the topic. Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
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
Place the fruit cards in a bowl to make ‘fruit salad’.
Conduct the activity with a group sitting in a circle, or as part of play in the home corner.
Model language to ask about preferences: ‘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 watermelon.’
Pass the bowl to a child to select a new fruit card.
Encourage children to express their preference in a sentence.
Observations / assessment opportunities
What word does the child use when they select a fruit card?
Does the child use Standard Australian English sentence structure: ‘I like <fruit>’, ‘I want a/some <fruit>’?
Resources needed
Printable Fruit Sheet, cut into cards
Bowl (for 'fruit salad')
Plates or bowls for children (optional)
Language focus
apple, banana, pear, papaya, grapes, strawberry, 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 home language to increase confidence.
Give children bowls or plates to put their cards on. Encourage children to talk about the fruits they choose to put on their plates or bowls. Do they like the same fruits?
Foundation Australian 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 the book, 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 of voice to state your preference, for example, ‘A banana, I like bananas.’
Say to students: ‘Put your hand up if you like bananas. Say, “I like bananas.”’
Then say: ‘Put you hand up if you love bananas. Say, “I love bananas!”’
Make sure you model a tonal difference for ‘like’ and ‘love’.
Shuffle the cards and turn them facedown.
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, strawberry, 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
Before you place each fruit card facedown on the floor, hold it up and ask students to name the fruit in their home language.
Year 1 Australian 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 storybook What fruit do you like? Talk about the adjectives – the words used to describe fruit in the book.
Model a sentence using the language for providing a reason for preference.
Write the sentence on the board, for example, ‘I love strawberries because they are red and sweet.’
Underline ‘because’.
On the board:
- write a list of preference words and phrases in order of most preferred to least preferred: ‘I love’, ‘I really like’, ‘I like’, ‘I don’t like’, ‘I really don’t like’
- write a list of fruit nouns (if needed)
- brainstorm and write a list of adjectives to describe fruits.
Give each student two or more fruit cards.
Students stick the cards onto paper and write a sentence to say if they like or do not like the fruit, and why.
Students read their sentences out loud.
Compile everyone’s pages into a ‘Fruit salad’ book.
Alternatively, if students have more than two cards each, they could each create their own ‘Fruit salad’ book.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Does the student use tone of voice to express the degree of preference when reading their sentences?
Does the student use ‘because’ to introduce the reason for likes or dislikes?
Resources needed
Printable Fruit Sheet, cut into cards
What fruit do you like? storybook
Pencils, paper and glue
Stapler
Language focus
apples, bananas, pears, papayas, grapes, strawberries, oranges, mangos, pineapples, chillis, watermelon
I like <fruit> because they are <adjective/s>.
Community languages
Find out the community language words for the fruits and write these on the board.
Encourage students to practise saying and writing the fruit nouns in their community languages, alongside the fruit cards.
Year 2 Australian Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E2LA08
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 printable Fruit Sheet.
Explain that they are going to tell a story about a big bowl of fruit.
Students draw a big bowl on a sheet of paper and add fruit they like to it. They can choose what to put in their bowl and how many images of each fruit. They can cut out the pictures and glue them in, and they can also draw their own, if they would like to add more of some fruits or add some fruits that are not included on the Fruit Sheet.
Each student then writes or tells the story of their big bowl of fruit, for example, ‘My fruit bowl 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 papaya because I don’t know what that tastes like.’
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can the student create a picture to build meaning for the story they tell?
Does the student use a reason to explain why they chose each fruit?
Can the student connect and develop ideas logically?
Resources needed
Printable Fruit Sheet (one copy for each student)
Paper, pencils, scissors and glue
Language focus
apples, bananas, pears, papayas, grapes, strawberries, oranges, mangos, pineapples, chillis, 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 could present their story in English and use gestures and community language words to highlight important information.
Year 3 Australian Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E3LA05
identify the purpose of layout features in print and digital texts and the words used for navigation
Mathematics: AC9M3ST03
conduct guided statistical investigations involving the collection, representation and interpretation of data for categorical and discrete numerical variables with respect to questions of interest
Lesson activity
‘Our favourite fruit’
Plan/implement
Give each student a copy of the printable Fruit Sheet.
Ask 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 the fruit they like the most to the fruit they like the least.
Students could group together fruits they like the same amount.
Ask students to explain their choices to the whole group, including their reasons, for example, ‘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.’
On a large sheet of paper, make an ‘Our favourite fruit’ bar graph together.
Write the names of the fruits along the horizontal axis.
Each student sticks their favourite fruit card to the chart, and these stack to form the bars of the graph.
Now, write the numbers 1 to 11 along the vertical axis.
The tallest bar on the graph shows which fruit is liked by the greatest number of students.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Does the student use their ordered list to show how they feel about the different fruits?
Does the student show groups in their ordered list?
Can students explain what the class graph shows?
Resources needed
Printable Fruit Sheet (one copy for each student)
Scissors
Large sheet of paper, pencils and glue
Language focus
apples, bananas, pears, papayas, grapes, strawberries, oranges, mangos, pineapples, chillis, watermelon
Numbers 1 to 11
many, more, most, greatest
My favourite …
I like <fruit> the most.
Community languages
Students can explain how they ordered their fruits in their community language.
Label the graph using community language words for fruits and numbers.
When discussing what the graph shows, you may like to include community language words for ‘more’, ‘many’, ‘few’ and ‘none’.