Pancake Day lesson ideas (Elementary-Pre-Intermediate)

We all love “tasty holidays”. Pancake Day is one of them. It’s celebrated on the 25th of February.

Here are some ideas that will help you to organize an amazing lesson suitable for teenagers and adults (Elementary-Pre-Intermediate level).

Let’s start!

Lead-in

Show these pictures to your students and ask whether they can explain the difference between these two pictures. 

Key: pancakes (pic 1) are thicker and fluffy while crêpes (pic 2) are thin and flat.

Ask some follow up questions e.g. 

— What do you prefer: pancakes or crêpes

— Can you cook both?

Vocabulary 

When we talk about pancakes, we can’t help mentioningt fillings.

Ask whether students can name some filling. Even elementaries will probably say something like jam, honey etc. Then ask to match names with pictures:

— berries

— caviar

— condensed milk

— cottage cheese

— maple syrup

— salmon

— sour cream

— whipped cream

Questions:

— Which filings do you prefer the most?

— What’s your favorite berry?

Unusual pancakes discussion

If we search for pictures in Instagram* using tag #pancakeday we can find lots of unusual pancakes. Here are some of them:

Discussion:

— Do they look yummy (tasty)?

— Choose the most beautiful picture.

— Do you think these pancakes are difficult to make?

Video recipe

Let’s watch a Perfect Fluffy Pancake recipe

The task:

Name the ingredients used

Key: flour,  baking powder, warm milk, butter, eggs.

Questions:

— Which toping do they use? (Key: maple syrup)

— Do you think cooking vlogs are popular?

— How often do you watch them? 

— Do you post your recipes in the Internet?

Reading + discussion 

Let’s find out more about the Pancake Day itself.

The task: Read the text and find the traditions which are similar to ones in your country. 

Pancake Day

Pancake Day is a favorite of children in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It is also called Shrove Tuesday. People can eat as many pancakes as they want – with syrup, or lemon and sugar, or strawberry sauce.

Another tradition on Pancake Day in the UK is pancake racing. People run in a race with a pancake in a pan.

In France, Shrove Tuesday is called Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. During the Mardi Gras Carnival people put on crazy masks.

In Poland, Shrove Tuesday is «Sledziowka». The most popular dish on that day is herring. Polish people organize parties to celebrate the end of the Carnival. They finish at midnight.

In Canada they add things to their pancakes such as coins, wedding rings, buttons. The lucky one to find coins in their pancake will be rich, the finder of the ring will be the first married etc.

In Sweden they have a tradition to eat Pea soup with pancakes.

(adapted from eslholidaylessons.com, projectbritain.com and learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org)

Then discuss Pancake Day traditions in a place where students live. Ask to tell about traditions (probably Russian Maslenitsa). 

Ask questions like:

— Do you like this festival? Do you celebrate it?

— What are you going to do this year?

Don’t forget to wish a nice holiday celebration!