Food Vocabulary for Kids — In the Kitchen! (A1)
Promise
After this lesson your child can name eight foods in English and talk about a Réunion cari.
Audience: Parents and teachers of young children in Réunion (French first language), plain English A2–B1. Context: a short English lesson at home or in class.
Time to read: 5 minutes · Format: web page
Before you start
You will be able to: name eight foods and make a simple sentence about a meal.
Three words you need first:
- food — what we eat.
- kitchen — the room where we cook.
- ingredient — one food you use to make a dish.
You need: some food in your kitchen.
My lesson (the original, unchanged)
A1 ⏱ 5 min
🍳 Food Vocabulary — In the Kitchen!
In Réunion, cooking is an art form. Let’s learn food words together with a bit of island flavour!
🥘 Food Words
bread
milk
cheese
egg
apple
carrot
chicken
rice
What do hens lay?
Which food is orange and grows underground?
Which food is made from wheat?
We need ____________ and cheese to make a sandwich.
The local Réunion dish uses ____________ with curry sauce and rice.
🌟 Réunion Fun Fact
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
Answers to the quiz above
- Eggs
- Carrot
- Bread
- bread
- chicken
Lecture notes
Segment 1 — Kitchen words
Visual 1 — Food groups
What it shows: the eight words in groups.
How to draw it: Draw three boxes and put the words in them.
The point it makes obvious: Groups help children remember.
FROM ANIMALS FROM PLANTS MADE BY PEOPLE milk, egg, apple, carrot, bread, cheese chicken rice
EXAMPLE (child in Réunion): “I have bread and milk for breakfast.”
Check 1: Is a carrot from an animal or a plant?
Show the answer
Segment 2 — A Réunion dish
Visual 2 — Plate
What it shows: a cari plate.
How to draw it: Draw a plate with three parts.
The point it makes obvious: Name each part in English.
+-----------------+
| rice | cari |
| | chicken |
|-----------------|
| beans / rougail |
+-----------------+
EXAMPLE (child in Réunion): “I like chicken cari with rice.”
Check 2: What do we eat with cari?
Show the answer
Worked example — the sandwich gap-fill
The task: Find the missing word.
| Step | What happens | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read: “We need ___ and cheese to make a sandwich.” | What is outside a sandwich? |
| 2 | A sandwich is made with bread. | |
| 3 | Say: “We need bread and cheese to make a sandwich.” |
Self-explanation prompt: Why bread? A sandwich is food between two pieces of bread.
Your turn (guided): Try: “The local Réunion dish uses ___ with curry sauce and rice.” (Answer: chicken.)
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Why it happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| “a bread” | French “un pain”. | “some bread” or “a loaf of bread”. |
| “a rice” | French “du riz”. | “some rice” (no “a”). |
| “egg” without -s for many | Plural is hard. | “two eggs”. |
Glossary
| Term | Plain definition | Where first used |
|---|---|---|
| food | what we eat | Before you start |
| kitchen | the room for cooking | Before you start |
| ingredient | one food in a dish | Before you start |
| cari | the Réunion curry dish | My lesson |
Quick review
- What do hens lay?
- What colour is a carrot?
- Which food is made from wheat?
- What do we eat with cari?
- Name one ingredient in a cari.
Show all five answers
2) Orange.
3) Bread.
4) Rice.
5) For example chicken, fish, onion, tomato or spices.
Fact check, 30 October 2026
The food words are correct. A Réunion cari is a curry-style dish, often with chicken (cari poulet) or fish, usually served with rice and often beans. This matches common descriptions of Réunion Creole cooking. Nothing needed correcting.
Status: rewritten in lecture-notes style on 30 October 2026. Not tested with readers.