Whenever people ask my daughter about her trip to Myrtle Beach she always mentions the seafood buffet. It had crab legs and prawns and lobster. But like most buffets that cater to families, it also had chicken fingers and pizza! (Should I mention all-you-can-eat ice cream?)
Here is a fun activity to try with your students if you’re doing a food-themed unit. This activity is useful for practicing countable and uncountable nouns. You can also use it to review “some” and “any”.
Our Buffet
1. Introduce the word “buffet” to your students. Help them with the proper pronunciation of this word.
2. Talk about some different types of buffets that your students may have seen or been to (seafood, Chinese, dessert, salad, pizza, breakfast). Ask your students to tell you what kind of food was on these buffets. Make a column on the board for countable and uncountable food, and ask them for help placing the food in the right column.
3. Next, divide your students into small groups. Each group is going to come up with its own buffet. The buffet should have some sort of theme (e.g., “breakfast” or “Mexican”).
4. Hand out this PDF worksheet, and tell your students to add food that they want to put on the buffet. This can be in writing or in picture form. 
(Optional) Give your students some magazines for inspiration. Have them cut out all of the types of food that they want to place in the buffet trays. Alternatively, have your students draw the food items in the trays. You can decide whether or not you want to erase the board.
5. Tell your students to name their buffet. They should also identify a buffet price for adults and kids.
6. Next, have your students to go through each dish on their buffet and decide whether the food is countable or uncountable. Allow your students to consult you (or a dictionary) for help.
6. Rearrange the groups so that one representative (host/hostess) from each buffet restaurant is in each group.
7. The group members then take turns being the host and the customers. (They should not share their papers yet.) The host starts by saying: Welcome to ____________ Buffet! The host then tells the customers the price of his buffet and describes the type of cuisine or food theme. The hostess then asks if there are any questions. The customers must each ask at least one question. Here are some examples:
Customers:
Is there anything healthy on your buffet?
Is there any pizza on the buffet?
Does the buffet have any pasta?
Is there anything to drink on the buffet?
Is there any spicy food on the buffet?
Host/Hostess:
Yes, we have some salad and some fruit on the buffet.
No, there isn’t any pizza on the buffet.
Yes, there is some pasta. There is spaghetti and lasagna.
No, there isn’t anything to drink on the buffet. You have to order drinks separately.
Yes, there are some spicy tacos on the buffet.
*You may want to make your own sample buffet. Ask a volunteer to be your customer.
8. After the questions have been answered, the hostess will name everything on the buffet. Listen to make sure they are using countable and uncountable nouns correctly (e.g., “bacon” not “bacons”, “rice” not “rices”).
9. After each host has had a chance to present their buffet, ask the class some questions:
Do any of the buffets look delicious?
Do any of the buffets offer healthy foods?
Are any of the buffets too expensive?
Do any of the buffets offer dessert?
Related
Find this week’s Spotlight lesson on Pizza in the Discovery Center – Food.
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