Lesson plan

Shopping and shops

Topic

Different shops

Learning outcomes

• Use words for different shops in both speaking and writing

• Practise asking for common items in shops
• Write simple sentences about what can be bought at different shops

Age and level

Adults (A1)

Time

60-70 minutes

Materials

• Presentation
• (Optional) Student Worksheet

Introduction

This lesson reviews vocabulary relating to everyday shopping and introduces different shop names.
Students practise speaking and listening using these items in a meaningful context. They then write
short sentences about different shops.

There are versions available for both face-to-face and online contexts. A presentation accompanies this
lesson. A Student Worksheet is also available if necessary.

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 Lesson plan
Procedure

At the start Questions for the teacher before beginning the lesson.
of the • Are all your students in the online classroom? If not, consider a short, warm-up
lesson activity until they have all arrived. Don’t wait too long though!
• Have you checked that all your students can see and hear you? How do you
know? Ask them to type in the chat box, or raise their hand, or say ‘yes’ if they
can hear you and see you. If they can’t hear you, ask them to check their audio
and video settings.
• Can all the students speak if they need to? Have you muted all their
microphones? It is a good idea at the start of the lesson to mute students’
microphones to avoid unnecessary noise.
• Do the students have their webcams switched on, if they have them?

1. Lead- in: • Show slide 1 of the presentation with the title. Explain that this lesson is about
Different shopping. Then show slide 2 of the presentation to create interest in the topic.
shops Option 1:
(10 mins) • Ask students where they go shopping: to a street market, a mall or individual
clothes/shoe shops etc. You can nominate a few students to unmute their
microphones and respond. Inform that others can write their preference in the
chat box. This will help you assess where the majority of the students in your
class go shopping.
• As the next step, ask the students to type, using the chat box, the shops and
buildings they already know. Give them some examples such as the bank,
grocery store, pharmacy/chemist (suggest both are acceptable). Remind them to
think of as many different types of shop as possible. Give students two minutes
to write their answers (as students will have varying typing speeds).
Option 2:
• If all the students have their webcams enabled, ask them to write the word or
phrase on a piece of paper (in large writing) and hold it up to their webcam, so
you can see all of them.
• Quickly look through the list of buildings/shops in the chat box or from the words
you see on pieces of paper and select 5-6 most common shops presented by the
students. You can write the 5-6 shops you selected on the whiteboard or the chat
box so that students can see the list.

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 Lesson plan
• Show slide 3 to the students to check if any buildings or shops they listed are on
the slide.
• Ask the students to match the names of buildings/shops they see on slide 3 with
the names they see at the bottom of the slide. Give them 2 to 3 minutes for the
task.
• Elicit answers by nominating a few students and give more details/clues if
required by the students.

2. Speaking • Show the students slide 4. Elicit the language they use for asking for things in a
practice shop. You can nominate a couple of students to respond by unmuting their
(15 mins) microphone while asking others to write in the chat box.
• Show the language (how to ask for things in a shop) listed on slide 5. Ask a few
students to practise the questions using some common items they buy for
example: chocolates, notebooks etc. Check pronunciation.
• Explain that the class is going to do a role play to practice asking for things in
shops. Half of the students will be shopkeepers and the other half will be
customers. Before they do the role-play, they will need to practise.
• Show slide 6. Point towards each item and have students identify them. Correct
pronunciation errors if any. The items are: medicine, newspaper, chocolate,
sandwich, tea, bread and cake.
• Demonstrate how the role play will work. Students who are customers will buy
the items on the right. Give an example. Point to the cup of tea and say ‘Can I
have a cup of tea, please? or ‘Excuse me, have you got any tea?’ The
shopkeeper can say ‘Yes, of course’ or ‘Sorry, we don’t have it at the moment’.
Model it for the students if needed with a volunteer student.
• Make a copy of slide 6 so that students can see it when they are in the breakout
rooms. Put students into pairs and ask them to decide who is the customer and
who is the shopkeeper. They should also decide what type of shop they are in.
Then ask them to practise the simple role play. You can monitor the different
rooms and make a note of any vocabulary or pronunciation errors to feed back.
• If you do not have the option for breakout rooms, you could nominate pairs of
students (or ask for volunteers) to practise the role play in front of the group,
taking it in turns.

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 Lesson plan
• At the end of the activity, give feedback to the students (how well they did!) and
correct any pronunciation errors.

3. Spelling • Tell students that they are now going to review words from the lesson. Suggest
focus that they get a pen and paper ready so that they can write the words, it will help
(10 mins) them with spellings and to guess the word with ease.
• Show slide 7 to the students. If necessary, explain that it is one word with 9
letters, and that each gap represents a missing letter. Nominate a student to
guess the word. If they’re not sure, get them to suggest possible letters until they
get the word (newsagent). Write the full word in the chat.
• Repeat with slides 8-12. Students can either raise their hand (either on camera
or using the raise hands function on your platform), write their answers in the
chat privately, or shout out the answer (depending on your group you might
prefer to nominate students to answer).
• Show slide 13 with the complete words.

4. Reading • Show students slide 14. Explain that they have to write the shopping items into
(10 mins) the right columns (as in the example with ‘fruit’).
• This could be done as a team game: make four teams with your group of
students and assign a picture to each group. Each group has to select words
from the bottom of the slide for their picture. You can use breakout rooms for this
or assign students to teams and ask them just to identify items for their own
picture. Set a time limit of 5-7 minutes for the task. The team that finishes first is
the winner.
• Ensure that students know which team they are in and write words for the
appropriate picture. Keep track of what’s being written in the chat box and
provide support as required. The students could also write the complete list on
paper and show it on the webcam for you to check. If you are using breakout
rooms, set a time limit and then ask each group to identify which items are from
their shop. Do a whole class feedback at the end and correct any errors.
• If students finish quickly, ask them to suggest more items for each different shop.
They could add words they already know or use a dictionary to look up new
words to add.
Note: Answers will vary depending on where you are. For example, in some parts of the
world it may only be possible to buy paracetamol at a pharmacy; in others it may be

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© The British Council 2021 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Lesson plan
possible to buy it at a newsagent. Accept any reasonable answers.

5. Task 4: • Show slide 15 to the students. Tell them that they need to complete the
Writing sentences by providing a name of a shop. Do an example: ask one of the
(15-20 mins) students to read the sentence and ask for suggestions from other students to
complete the blank/missing word. Note that more than one shop may be
possible.
• Go through all of the sentences by nominating one student to read the sentence
and another student to fill in the gap. The oral work will help all the students to
establish the correct word for each gap. You could also ask the whole class to
repeat the sentences to work on pronunciation.
• Ask students to write the sentences in their notebook and to pay attention to
spellings.
• Show slide 16 to the students. Tell them that they need to complete the
sentences with an item they can buy and where they can buy it. Elicit a couple of
examples by nominating students e.g. I can buy chocolate at the newsagent.
Students may like to suggest different shops and items to the ones that they
have focused on in this lesson.
• Give them 5 minutes to fill in the blanks by writing the sentences in their
notebooks, or you could ask them to write directly to you in the chat. Stress that
they need to write the correct spellings.
• Do a whole class feedback by nominating students to share their answers. They
should say the complete sentence.
• Direct the students to write three complete sentences on paper and show on the
webcam for you to check or ask them to write them in the chat. Nominate
students to read their sentences aloud.
• Give feedback on any good language and correct any errors here.

6. Students can write more sentences about different items and shops, as in the final
Homework activity. Or they can complete the crossword in the Student Worksheet (Task 5).

Contributed by

Sarah Burn and adapted for online teaching by Kamini Taneja

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© The British Council 2021 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.