Speaking assessment 5th grade "Food" Countable & uncountable

Presentation stage

Grade: 5th grade.
Topic: Things to eat, Thing to drink
function: Children learn to speak about food and drinks and differentiate between countable and uncountable nouns.

1. Listen and read the following dialogue

Paula: Claudia, I have an idea. It’s Pedro’s birthday and we need to go shopping for the party. Let’s see what we need. We have to buy soft drinks and juice.
Claudia: No, we don’t have to buy juice. We have some orange juice in the fridge. We do have to buy soft drinks, though.
Paula: And what about coffee, milk and tea?
Claudia: We have tea and milk, but coffee is not necessary.
Paula: OK. What about bread, butter and cheese?
Jenny: Yes, we need some bread and some butter. We don’t have any, but there is some cheese in the fridge, hmmm…don’t forget the crips.
Paula: You’re right. We must have crips. What about plastic glasses?
Claudia: Yes, plastic glasses, of course.
Paula: Paula, and a cake?
Claudia. The cake is a surprise!

2. How many food and drinks can you identify?

3. Imagine that you are preparing a party...What would you like to eat?

Practice stage

1. Work in pairs and listen to the dialogue again. Then have your partner complete the expresion using some, any or a/an. You can use them more than one.

student A

a. Claudia, I have......... idea.
b. We have ...........orange juice in the refrigerator.

Student B

c. Yes, we need ..........bread and ........... butter.
d. But there is........ cheese in the refrigerator.

2. Talk about you. Use these words

Hello, I'm........ I'm....... years old. This is mi lunch. I have ........ .............................................................................................
.............................................................................................

Practice stage 2

Questions of quantities


1. Work in pairs. Make two questions using How much or how many

Example:
Student A

How many eggs do you eat?

Student B

I eat two eggs every day.

Student B

How much milk do you drink?

Student A

I drink a lot of milk

Production stage

1. Make pictures on a list of food. Then you have to describe your list and classify its food on countable or uncountable.

Countable and Uncountable nouns

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

• dog, cat, animal, man, person
• bottle, box, litre
• coin, note, dollar
• cup, plate, fork
• table, chair, suitcase, bag

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

• My dog is playing.
• My dogs are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

• A dog is an animal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

• I want an orange. (not I want orange.)
• Where is my bottle? (not Where is bottle?)

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

• I like oranges.
• Bottles can break.

We can use some and any with countable nouns:

• I've got some dollars.
• Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

• I've got a few dollars.
• I haven't got many pens.

"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can count people:

• There is one person here.
• There are three people here.

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

• music, art, love, happiness
• advice, information, news
• furniture, luggage
• rice, sugar, butter, water
• electricity, gas, power
• money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

• This news is very important.
• Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

• a piece of news
• a bottle of water
• a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

• I've got some money.
• Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

• I've got a little money.
• I haven't got much rice.

Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns".

Nouns that can be Countable and Uncountable

Sometimes, the same noun can be countable and uncountable, often with a change of meaning.


Drinks (coffee, water, orange juice) are usually uncountable. But if we are thinking of a cup or a glass, we can say (in a restaurant, for example):
Two teas and one coffee please