Setting: Learning in Year 5/6 Italian lessons, Term 3:
“The Italian Restaurant” The students worked in groups, researched how many dishes are served in a typical Italian meal, created names for their Italian restaurant, wrote menus and wrote invitations to the Principal, APRE, Librarian and their class teachers. Students presented their learning in their groups, spoke to their guests in Italian to welcome them, showed them to their seats and served their guests the Italian meal which their parents had prepared in advance. Students taught their invited guests to speak in Italian to place an order for a meal, ask for more wine (red cordial), ask for more food, how they would like to pay for the meal, comment on the meal and overall service.
Student’s reflections on the Italian restaurant learning experience:
Q: Why did you say that it was fun, learning about the Italian restaurant?
“I thought it was fun because we got to create our own Italian menus. We got to write our own invitations to our teachers to come to our Italian restaurant. I think it’s really cool that we got to design our own posters for our Italian restaurant.”
Q: Why do you think it’s important to have fun when you are learning?
“If you don’t have fun, it gets really boring and you don’t want to do it. You don’t look forward to it. If you have fun, you get really excited and you actually learn something.”
Q: What is it about fun that helps you learn?
It makes it a lot easier to learn. You learn a lot from listening about something you look forward to. You know what you’re doing because you’re excited about it.”
Evviva La Musica 