Food and Drinks in English: Meals, Snacks and Sweet Things

Practice on screen

Look at the picture or number and choose the right English word. Ten questions each round.

How to teach it

1. 1. Menu role play

   Draw a simple menu with pictures and a few food and drink words. One child is the waiter and asks: "What would you like?" The other answers: "I would like some soup and some water, please." Then swap. This gives a real reason to use the words and polite phrases.

2. 2. Plan a picnic basket

   Give the child a basket and a pile of picture cards. Say: "Put some bread in the basket. Put two apples in the basket." The child listens and places the right cards. Then the child gives the instructions for you.

3. 3. Like and don't like

   Show a food card and ask: "Do you like pizza?" The child answers: "Yes, I do" or "No, I don't." Sort the cards into two piles and make a short sentence for each: "I like cheese. I don't like soup."

4. 4. Name the meal

   Talk about what the child eats at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Draw three plates and let the child draw the food on each, then say: "For breakfast I have eggs and milk." This practices the meal words and the use of have.

5. 5. Food bingo or memory

   Play bingo or a matching game with food pictures and word cards. As each card is turned over, the child says the word aloud. Short, repeated rounds with a few cards work better than one long game.

6. 6. Count or not count

   Make two boxes labeled "a / an" and "some". Sort the cards: an egg, a cake, a pizza go in one; bread, rice, milk, water in the other. Say a phrase for every card, so the child hears the pattern many times.

Common mistakes

• Saying "a bread" or "a water"

  Bread, rice, cheese, butter, milk, water and juice are not counted. Say "some bread", "some water". To count them, use a measure: a slice of bread, a glass of water, a bowl of rice, a cup of tea.

• Adding -s to uncounted food words

  Words like bread, rice, cheese and meat do not take -s: "two breads" is not correct. Say "two slices of bread". Pizza, cake and cookie are different: they are counted, so two pizzas, two cakes, two cookies.

• Mixing up a and some

  Use a or an with one counted item: a sandwich, an egg. Use some with food that is not counted, or with more than one: some rice, some cookies. Practice with real food on the table.

• Using "I want" instead of "I would like"

  "I want a pizza" is correct but sounds direct. When you ask for food, "I would like a pizza, please" or "Can I have some water, please?" is more polite. Teach one polite phrase and use it in role play.

• Dinner, lunch and supper

  Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the standard meal words. Meals do not take a or the in the usual sentence: "We have lunch at noon", not "We have a lunch". Say "I eat breakfast", "I have dinner".