Summer classes are over, so I’ve been spending most of my deskwarming time editing videos from weeks past. Below is the break down of my Chopped! Lesson plan for my English summer program class:
Number of students: 4
Grade levels: 1st year and 3rd year middle school
Duration of Class: 90 minutes
Introduction: Show the students short clips from Food Network’s Chopped! Show
Presentation: Chopped! Video & Chopped Judging Criteria
- Power Point Presentation going over judging criteria: Taste, Presentation, & Creativity. Lots of examples and pictures!
- 1 slide to explain production activity.
Practice: Make S’mores with students
- Ask students about ingredients for S’mores
- Are these ingredients sweet, salty, hot, or cold?
- Have students make their own s’mores
- Eat & enjoy!

Finished product! I actually liked it better than the ones I make at home because the marshmellows weren’t too sweet!
Production: Chopped! Food Competition
- Split students into teams of 2
- Explain directions to students:
20 minutes to make their own sandwich entrée using given ingredients.
- Students must name their entrée
- Must use main ingredient: bread
- Make enough plates for teacher & classmates
- Explain what ingredients is in their dish and describe the taste
- Opposing team and teacher judges on a scale of (1-5) based on 3 criteria explained earlier: Taste, Presentation, and Creativity.
- Team with the most points wins!
Extra Treat: Grilled Cheese Goodness!
Make grilled cheese sandwiches for students to enjoy!
This had to be one of my favorite lesson plans of all time! It worked well because I didn’t have too many students for the activities and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I gave my co-teacher the list of ingredients and it was all provided by the school’s budget. It was fun to see what they could whip up with the given ingredients! The only thing that was a bit of a pain was the clean up, but they were helpful and worked together well. I could definitely see myself doing this type of lesson again if I am ever blessed with a small group. Food is universal and who doesn’t like to eat?
Ta-ta for now!
A great blog you have. A great idea to do with students.
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Thank you for reading!
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Wow! That sounds like so much fun!
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It was fun! I wish I could do this with my regular classes but it worked perfectly for a smaller group. Thanks for reading 🙂
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This is a really cool lesson idea! I’m applying to EPIK right now, and I’m so glad I found your blog/youtube channel, as it gives me a bit of an idea of what to expect. Sorry if you’ve already addressed this somewhere, but it’d be really awesome if you could make a post about your class schedule during the school year and the logistics of teaching. Like how many times per week do you see each class? Do you ever teach the same lesson twice? How much time do you spend lesson-planning? Sorry for all the questions, but I’m really curious (and nervous haha).
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Hey Sarah! I have written a previous post answering some of your questions if you check here: https://kimmyonaquest.com/2015/04/21/teaching-english-as-a-newb/ But to answer your questions here: I only see each of my classes once a week but I have about 20 classes each week to teach. I usually teach a different lesson for each grade level, but I repeat the same lesson 3-4 times throughout the week because I have different kids in each class. Each week is different, but I would say that I spend about 8-10 hours a week lesson planning. I am quite a procrastinator, and I usually don’t use my office hours to lesson plan like I should but you will have plenty of time in the office to do so if you end up with EPIK (depending on your school too of course). If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to me by email. I’d be happy to help!
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Thank you so much for your response! I really appreciate your help, and I look forward to cool, new content on your blog/YouTube channel!
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Thanks for reading & watching Sarah! Best of luck on applying to EPIK!
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