Holiday recipes offer a fun and practical way to improve reading comprehension while introducing learners to food-related vocabulary, instruction-following skills, and math literacy. By reading and following simple recipes, learners get to engage with multiple literacy skills that have real-world applications.
Lesson Objectives:
- Develop reading comprehension skills by interpreting written instructions.
- Introduce and reinforce food-related vocabulary (e.g., ingredients, measurements, and cooking terms).
- Build learners’ confidence in following step-by-step tasks.
Choose Simple Recipes:
- Select easy, familiar holiday recipes with short ingredient lists and simple instructions (e.g., sugar cookies, hot cocoa, or a fruit salad).
- Print copies of the recipes or share them digitally with learners.
Introduce Vocabulary:
- Teach key cooking terms such as “mix,” “stir,” “bake,” “preheat,” and “chop.”
- Review measurements like teaspoon (tsp), tablespoon (tbsp), cup, and pinch.
- Show pictures or real examples of ingredients to help learners visualize the terms.
Read the Recipe Together:
- Read through the recipe as a group. Break it into parts: ingredients list, preparation steps, and cooking instructions.
- Ask learners comprehension questions such as:
- “What temperature should the oven be set to?”
- “How much sugar do we need?”
- “What is the first step in the instructions?”
Practical Activity:
- Create the recipe together in class, or assign it as a take-home activity.
- While cooking, encourage learners to refer back to the recipe to follow each step.
Reflect on the Activity:
- Discuss the recipe after completion:
- “What was the most difficult part to follow?”
- “What new words did you learn?”
- “How did you know what to do in step 2?”
Expand the Lesson:
- Have learners bring in or share their favorite family recipes for the class to read and discuss.
- Practice writing short recipes as a group activity to reinforce sequencing skills and food vocabulary.