La comida mexicana

Food is a very culturally rich topic to teach. We have started to look at different types of Mexican food as part of our unit of inquiry entitled "accent impacts the communication of messages". First, we are researching and discovering traditional Mexican foods. To do this, I use the below document which requires the students to match the words to the pictures, and they are of course allowed to research these foods online.

Once the students have completed the document above, we check for knowledge and understanding with the below PPT.

Next, we use the Señor Wooly son ¡Pan! to discover key vocabulary for ordering food in a restaurant (you will need a subscription to his website and then need to search in the "stories" tab for his videos). I love Señor Wooly's songs as they are so memorable for the students, and each video comes with lyrics, gap fill activities, work sheets and puzzles. During this class my students completed a gap-fill activity with the lyrics, followed by a crossword puzzle using the lyrics. Finally they completed the square puzzle. See the photos below.

Once the students have a good foundation knowledge of vocabulary, they then practice role-play dialogues as if at a Mexican restaurant. I'm very lucky to have copies of an authentic Mexican menu left behind from a previous colleague. It is a great resource to use for these role-play dialogues. The dialogue itself, draws on vocabulary previously learned for conversations at the market and train station. It is great for students to see use high frequency questions and phrases such as ¿qué desea?, ¿qué quiere?, ¿algo más?, ¿cuánto cuesta?, and quiero... in different scenarios for different purposes.