#1839. Mexican Food

Language, level: Elementary
Posted Wed Jul 5 08:04:40 PDT 2000 by Melissa Schack (Melissa_trouble@hotmail.com).
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, USA
Materials Required: Art Supplies for each student, Construction Paper, Mexican Food Pictures, at leaset one computer.
Activity Time: 3 days
Concepts Taught: Teach new Spanish food vocabulary

Rationale:
-This is one of several lessons about food vocabulary. This lesson introduces Mexican food and the history behind it. The main objective of this lesson is to introduce new food vocabulary to the students. In addition, the students will also participate in classroom activities, make a menu of their own, take quizzes, and use the internet to practice the vocabulary. The students will apply what they learn in a Mexican restaurant, by ordering their meal in Spanish.

Learner Objectives:
Following a lecture and power point presentation on the history of Mexican food, grade five students will be able to recognize and order Mexican cuisine, at a restaurant, with 100% accuracy.

The students will be able to:
~ Identify the foods associated with Mexico.
~ Compare and contrast these foods with the foods
associated in the United States.
~ Recognize that many of the foods used in the world
today were developed in Mexico.
~ Describe the typical foods that come from Mexico.
~ Recall that Mexican meals have similarities and
differences from the meals in America.
~ Be familiar with and be able to order food from a
Mexican Menu.
Lesson Body:
-The teacher will start discussing the history of corn in Mexico. The teacher will ask the students the following questions:
1. Why do you think corn is so important in Mexico?
2. Are these foods similar to the ones that we eat
at home?
3. What do they eat at home that is
similar/dissimilar?
4. What foods would they eat that were shown and
talked about?
5. What foods are typical in the American diet?
6. Which of these foods would people in Mexico eat
as well?
7. Which of these foods would people in other
countries eat as well?
-The teacher will discuss all the questions asked in detail. The teacher will discuss why there is a difference in the types of food eaten in a particular country. The teacher will display the various pictures, using power point, with the English name and the Spanish name below it. The teacher will say the English version then the Spanish version and have the class repeat after him/her. After the pictures have been viewed and spoken in Spanish, the teacher will show the picture and ask the class, as a whole, to say the food in Spanish.
-The teacher will now discuss that the class will be making their own menu, using the new words that they have learned. They can be as creative as they wish, but they must use the new words learned in this lesson. The teacher will tell the class that they will be sharing his/her menu with the class. The class will become acquainted with new vocabulary for two class periods, using their menus, playing memory game, bingo, and having vocabulary quizzes. At the beginning of the third class period, the class will go to a Mexican restaurant and order their lunch in Spanish.

Evaluation:

A. Student Assessment
1. Assessment Plan
-The students' understanding of the vocabulary will be informally assessed through large group participation in a class discussion. Teacher observation of individual participation in the class discussion will also be evaluated. The students' understanding will also be assessed in playing various games as memory and bingo. The quizzes and ordering of lunch in a Mexican restaurant will be the formal evaluation, of the understanding of the material.

Supplementary:

1. Part of a video called Cuisine Mexico will be shown to the class. This video shows various Mexican dishes and how they are prepared.
2. Playing memory game: cards with pairs of vocabulary words English-Spanish or Spanish-English images face down, which students try to match up, by remembering the location of the cards. Each player is allowed to turn 2 cards face up, if they match the player removes them form the board, if not, the player turns them face down and loses the turn. The player with the most matches wins.
3. Playing bingo: using student-made bingo cards, in which the students have written vocabulary words.
4. Internet sites: For the student who chooses to browse the web for activities.
1. http://www.funbrain.com
2. http://www.quia.com/custom/312main.htm
3. http://www.wordcentral.com