How to order pizza - Elementary level lesson plan

It's been a long time since my last post, life has been rather unpredictable lately and it's also the school holidays; I've been spending less time online, but on the upside I've been spending more time with my family, which has been wonderful.  However the holidays are coming to an end and I've been thinking about my wonderful group of beginners and decided it was time to start planning some lessons for September.


This year I would like to continue to focus on improving the group's spoken proficiency, I want them to feel comfortable and confident to speak in real life situations. The objective of this first lesson is to learn how to place an order for pizza over the phone.   It's a situation that will give them the opportunity to review some of the language that they've already learnt, for example: giving information like name/address/telephone numbers, using 'can' to request and in addition to that, there will be lots of opportunity for speaking, listening and role-play. 

How to order pizza

Lesson level: Elementary

Target vocabulary: 
Food: Pizza/toppings/drinks/side dishes. 
Numbers: Money/Prices. 
Restaurant language: Menu/Take-away/Eat-in/Order.  
Requests: I'd like/Can I have.  
Giving information: Name/address/telephone number/Verb to be.

Materials: Menu handout/dialogue handouts/ toy money/ fake telephones or mobile phones/ paper and pens.

1. Hand out the menu (prices should be changed according to your country).

Pizza Menu

2. Introduce the language: 

• This is a menu, where would you find a menu?
• What kind of restaurant is this menu from?
• What does 'Take-away' mean?
• What's the opposite of 'Take-away'? (Eat-in)
• Do you like Pizza?
• How often do you eat pizza?
• What kind of pizza do you like? (Good question to check the vocab that they already have)
• What are your favourite toppings? (Brainstorm different kinds of toppings, favourite combinations, have a vote etc)
• Do you usually order a small or large pizza?
• Do you just order pizza or do you also order a side dish? (if necessary use flash cards:salad/garlic bread)
• Do you usually order something to drink? If yes, what?
• How much do you usually pay for delivery? (If an order is over 100 shekels is it usually free?) 

3. Dialogue:

• Choose a stronger student to role-play the dialogue with you.

How to Order Pizza Dialogue

4. Comprehension questions: (I prefer to ask these verbally, but could be done as a written exercise)

• What's the name of the restaurant?
• What did the customer order?
• How much did his take-away order cost?
• What's his name/address/telephone number?
• How much will Simon Cook pay for delivery? Why?

5. Get students to role-play the dialogue in pairs.

6. Ask students to underline the expressions in the dialogue used to 'ask for something' or 'request information'.  Ask for examples write them on the board.

7. Hand out the 'gap fill' exercise and get students to complete the dialogue using the menu to add a pizza, side dish and drink of their choice and their own name, address and telephone number:

How to Order Pizza Dialogue Gap Fill

8. Role-play:

Objectives: 

Student A: To place an order for pizza, within a budget.

Student B: To deliver the correct order to the customer.

Equipment: 
Two phones/two menus/toy money/sheet of paper/pen

• Get students into pairs and make sure they each have a telephone (mobile phone or toy). 
• Student A will play the role of the customer, they must have a menu and a relevant sum of toy money, I'll give my students 150 shekels; they will need to place an order that doesn't exceed that amount including the delivery (remind them that delivery is only free for orders over 100 shekels).  They must be given enough time to prepare.
• Student B will play the part of the Pizza restaurant, they must have a menu, a pen and a piece of paper. Whilst student A is preparing they should look at the menu and review the vocabulary, prices and dialogue. 
• When student A-the customer is ready, they should call student B- the Pizza restaurant (if they have unlimited calls on their mobile, they could actually use real mobile phones).
• Student B needs to draw the items that student A requests on the paper (e.g. a circle for pizza, with little fish if the topping is tuna or rings if the topping is onion etc. artistic ability is not important).
• When the role-play is over student B must calculate the cost of the order (using the menu) and deliver the order (the picture) to student A.
• Student B is only allowed to give the order to student A, if the value of the order is less than their budget, in my students case: 150 shekels.
• 10 points goes to each student if they succeed. Student A can earn an extra 10 points if they use polite expressions to request e.g.:"Can I...", "I would like..".  Student B can earn an extra 10 points if they are able to write down either the address or telephone number of the customer.

* For weaker students, it might be a good idea to demonstrate the role-play first (use a stronger student for the demonstration).
*For stronger students, vary the budget to make it more difficult.

* Try to ensure that the students have enough time to change roles and if possible partners.

Happy teaching :-)

I appreciate any comments and feedback.  If you are a Google+ member please comment below.  If you're on Facebook please message me there and of course you can always send me an email: emma_segev@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks and I hope you found this post helpful :-)