Spaghetti with meatballs activity!!

Do you want to involve some movement and action in your lessons?

You may use a big floor mat -you can either make your own one or use a ready made one by "twister "board game or "spaghetti twister" board game. The one I use is "spaghetti and meatballs" theme mat.

The point is to have your students follow some orders so as to acquire new vocabulary items or new grammatical structures by putting their hands and feet on the proper colours.

Some ideas you may want to apply are the following:

1) You can prepare cards of different colours (green, blue, yellow, red) with different orders aiming to practice imperative.

e.g. Put your right hand on a blue meatball, put your left arm on a red meatball etc.

2) You can even make your own recipe by following the equivalent steps

For example if you want to make spaghetti with meatballs you should:

 -Step 1:put your left hand on a green meatball-Boil the spaghetti

 -Step 2:put your right hand on a blue meatball- In a large bowl, combine beef with breadcrumbs, parsley, parmesan, egg, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and red pepper flakes. Mix until just combined  then form into 16 balls.

-Step 3:  put your left foot on a red meatball-In a large pot over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon oil. Add meatballs and cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove meatballs and reserve on plate.

-Step 4: put your right foot on a yellow meatball- Add the remaining oil and onion and cook until onion is soft, 5 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Add the meatballs back into the pot, cover and simmer until the sauce has thickened, 8 to 10 minutes

-Step 5: put your head (!) on a green meatball- Serve pasta with a healthy scoop of meatballs and sauce. Top with Parmesan before serving.

Then you can have students undo the orders! They should try to remember the cooking steps and repeat the orders backwards aiming to acquire new cooking vocabulary!!

You can combine this activity with any grammatical or vocabulary practice you like! 

Have fun

Maria P.