In this fun activity, students learn vocabulary related to cooking and revise the imperative form by writing their own recipe for a magic potion made of horrid ingredients of their own choice.
I usually start this lesson with a general discussion about cooking. I ask my students if they like preparing food and I encourage them to tell me about the dishes they can prepare.
Then I hand out a few recipes and together we make a list of verbs and other words which they might find useful in writing their own recipe (I make sure to write everything up on the whiteboard as they will have to use that vocabulary later).
At this stage I also elicit that the imperative form is used when writing a recipe. Depending on my students' level I decide whether it's necessary to explain the imperative form in detail or a quick revision is enough. There are a number of recipes you can use here: you can choose a more elaborate recipe for your more advanced students or a simple one for your less proficient pupils. Click here to have a look at my favourite Halloween recipes.
OK. so students are now familiar with the structure of a typical recipe and know a lot of cooking words. They have seen a few examples and are ready to create their own recipe...BUT there are a few things they need to do before they roll up their sleeves and get down to hard work.
First of all, I show them this short video and elicit answers to two questions:
1. What is White Queen making? A magic potion.
2. What does the potion do? It makes Alice shorter.
Now I tell students they're going to make a special recipe for their own magic brew. In order to do that, they need to think of three things:
a) What will your magic potion do?
b) What ingredients will you need?
c) A step by step, detailed instruction how to make your portion.
It's important to point out that a good magic potion doesn't include "typical" ingredients...I always help pupils come up with yucky, hair-raising ingredients and let their imagination run wild. Some of the ingredients might include eye balls, finger/toe nails, witch's tooth, drops/millilitres/litres of tears/sweat/saliva/snot, nose hair, tongue, fingers, toes, earwax, eyelashes...The more imaginative and detailed the list of ingredients is , the more interesting the outcome, so I make sure to help everybody with gruesome vocab.
I never forget to play some spine-chilling Halloween music to get everyone's creative juices flowing. You might find this Halloween Music Playlist handy.
SPOOOOOKY BREWING EVERYONE!
https://onthesamepageelt.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/using-context-clues-ten-halloween-songs/
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-halloween-activities/
http://busyteacher.org/17448-10-fun-halloween-games-english-practice.html
https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2014/10/23/efl-classroom-activities-and-resources-for-halloween/
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https://www.facebook.com/onthesamepage.elt/posts/2057350524282458:0
http://consiliumeducation.com/itm/2017/10/19/halloween-for-early-years/
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