Every summer, seedless watermelons fill supermarket shelves, but have you ever wondered how they are actually produced? Are they genetically modified? Are the seeds removed by hand? Celebrate August 3rd – B1+ Watermelon Day lesson and explore one of the world’s most popular fruits and how they are made.
Watermelon Day seemed like the perfect opportunity to create a lesson around one of summer’s most popular fruits. Even though there are many great recipes that use watermelons, I thought that this time we could watch a True Food TV video about seedless watermelons. Students learn about the seedless watermelon production step by step. Since it describes a process, it was also a quite simple decision to lean into the grammar part and have a quick present passive voice revision.
So, if you’re looking for a communicative B1+ watermelon day lesson that combines authentic listening (with subtitles!), grammar in context, and creative speaking look no further. Scroll to the end of the post to download the worksheet, teacher’s notes and presentation.
Warmer: A Trip to the Greengrocer’s
I enjoy starting lessons with something else, other than a typical discussion. For this reason, I thought that students can imagine they are visiting a greengrocer’s and need to select five products from a price list. The price list features both – familiar and unusual fruit and vegetables. Alongside everyday produce, they’ll discover pink pineapples, pineberries (white strawberries), or Cotton Candy grapes. Students will have a chance to discuss it later on in the class.
To introduce this selection of fruit and vegetables, I decided to ask ChatGPT for help. I asked it to create a price list with the pictures – something that would be quite hard for me to do on my own.
Once they finished their shopping, compare the baskets and explain why they chose particular products. They justify how they chose the products – based on curiosity, appearance, price, or perhaps something completely different.
Pre-listening Discussion: How Are Seedless Watermelons Made?
Before watching the video, students discuss an interesting statistic.
Around 90% of watermelons sold in the US are seedless.
Firstly, they share their own theories about how seedless watermelons are produced. Afterwards, they predict which ideas will appear in the video. They then watch an authentic True Food TV video – SEEDLESS Watermelon – You’ll Never Guess How It’s Grown. The listening tasks progress from identifying the main ideas to listening for specific details. This encourages learners to notice both, the production process and the language used to describe it.
Grammar in Context: The Passive Voice
Instead of introducing grammar through isolated examples, students discover the present simple passive in the authentic listening text. After completing a paragraph with missing verbs from the video, they identify the passive structures and then compare them with active sentences. Since this passive structure is quite easy, there is only a short grammar reminder that explains when we use the passive voice and its formation. To make sure that the students fully understood the concept, they complete a short adapted text by wbur, The Cotton Candy Grape: A Sweet Spin On Designer Fruit with either verbs in the active or passive voice.
Creative Speaking: Invent the Next Food Innovation
The second half of the lesson encourages students to become food innovators themselves. Working in pairs, they firstly invent a brand-new fruit or vegetable and think about it as a real product. They decide what it looks like, who it is for, how much it costs, and where they can buy it. Next, they describe how their invention is created by writing a short production process using both the active and passive voice. This gives students a meaningful opportunity to recycle the target grammar instead of completing another controlled exercise.
Product Pitch: Would You Invest?
Students then present their invention to the class, explaining why their fruit or vegetable deserves to become the next big food innovation. After listening to all the presentations, each student imagines they have €1 million to invest. They can only choose one innovation, so they must listen carefully before deciding which product they would support and explain why. I thought that this activity provides a motivating reason to pay attention throughout every presentation.
Final Discussion: Should We Change Nature?
The lesson finishes as always with a discussion about food innovation and its place in our everyday lives. Students reflect on whether they enjoy trying unusual fruit and vegetables. Then discuss examples of successful food innovations and consider whether scientists should continue developing new varieties or leave nature unchanged.
This B1+ Watermelon Day lesson combines authentic listening, grammar, reading, speaking, and creative production through a topic that is highly relevant. By the end of the lesson, students will have learned how one of the world’s favourite fruits is produced, practised the present simple passive and developed the confidence to present and defend their own food innovation.
If you could invent any new fruit or vegetable, what would it be?
