It’s a lovely day so what is better than a picnic? And what a great activity to do with your English class! We’ve already talked about taking your class outside and the activities you can do. Today though I want to give you a picnic EFL ESL lesson plan for children to learn all about picnics. What can you eat at a picnic? And what do we need to take with us? And where can we go? This is a lesson plan for children of primary age and it will last about one hour. If you can do it outside, that’s great. If not, no worries, we will have a fantastic time at our classroom picnic.
For this EFL ESL picnic lesson plan for children, you will need:
- Picnic food flashcards – either make your own or use something like these from Maple Leaf Learning (free if you sign up)
- A picnic blanket or something to sit on
- Food if you want to have a real picnic
- Paper and coloring markers
Songs and videos:
- We’re Going on a Picnic by Maple Leaf learning
- The Picnic song by Miss Karla’s English Class
Introduction
Start the lesson with your usual Hello routine or use one of my favorite Hello songs or warm-ups. Then start introducing your picnic theme. You could do this with a mystery bag, one of the games I use most to introduce a subject and new vocabulary. In the mystery bag, you could either put your flashcards with picnic pictures or put some real picnic food and a rug. See if the kids can guess what you’ll be doing today. Then familiarize them with the new words by playing a game of What’s missing?
Sing a picnic song
It’s time to learn a new song and I would start with the Maple leaf Learning song. It’s easy to learn and sing with even the smallest kids. Sing the song a couple of times and then ask the kids “What do you want to eat?”. They can reply with the food on the flashcards or add other food too. Sit in a circle and go around the circle asking the question and then letting the kids ask it to the person next to them.
Play a picnic game
Let’s see if the children can remember the question and the food words you’ve just learned. Draw a grid on the board and put a food card in each square. Divide the kids into two teams and play a game of noughts and crosses. To be able to put a nought or a cross in the square they want, the other team asks “What do you want to eat?” and the child has to reply “I want …” with the food in the square of their choice. The winner is the team with three noughts or crosses in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row. You can find this and lots more ideas in my EFL ESL Games for Primary/Elementary children.
Let’s go on a picnic
Are you ready to go for a picnic? Time to learn another song and this time it’s the Picnic Song. You can adapt the food and drinks to the words you have been learning or use the ones in the song. Sing the song together and get ready for your picnic. If you are going outside, get ready and walk together to your picnic spot. Otherwise clear some space in the classroom for your picnic rug and sit down together. Get your food out, real or pretend. Then let the kids ask each other what they want to eat and serve it. If you’re using pretend food or flashcards, you can still do this. They can also ask the question in the Picnic song, “Are there any sandwiches?” or “is there any juice?”. When you’ve finished, tidy up and get back to your desks.
Draw a picnic picture
With the paper and markers, ask the class to draw a picture of their picnic and all the yummy food they had to eat. Don’t forget to write or get them to write the names of the food. When everyone has finished, tidy up. Finish the lesson by singing the picnic songs again and then end with your usual Goodbye song. Alternatively try one of my favorite Goodbye songs.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Picnic EFL ESL lesson plan for children. If you would like to see more, you can find lots more lesson plans and teaching ideas here on GoogooEnglish. To keep up to date with new posts, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates by filling in the from below. See you soon!