A Dish of Ice Cream - Stories of wisdom

A heart-warming story lesson that develops listening, speaking and critical-thinking skills

Bring a memorable story into your classroom with A Dish of Ice Cream, a complete lesson built around a simple but powerful tale of kindness, patience and empathy.

Learners listen to the story of a ten-year-old boy who visits a café and carefully chooses what to order. As the story unfolds, they make predictions, answer comprehension questions, describe the characters and reflect on the waitress’s surprising discovery.

The lesson encourages learners not only to understand the story, but also to think more deeply about people’s choices, feelings and motivations.

What’s included?

Everything you need to deliver an engaging, visually rich lesson:

• A downloadable lesson plan with clear teaching instructions
• Printable worksheets and classroom activities
• A ready-to-use digital presentation
• Downloadable story audio
• Beautiful images that support understanding and discussion
• Listening-comprehension questions and answers
• A comic-strip completion activity
• Character-description tasks
• Creative extension and reflection questions
• A research assignment connected to the history of vanilla

Skills developed

This lesson helps learners develop:

• Listening for gist and specific information
• Speaking and discussion skills
• Prediction and inference
• Vocabulary for describing people and emotions
• Narrative language
• Creative and empathetic thinking
• Research and independent-learning skills

Flexible and easy to teach

The materials can be used in face-to-face, online or hybrid classrooms. Activities may be completed individually, in pairs, in groups or as a whole class.

The digital presentation provides a clear structure for the lesson, while the printable worksheets, audio and images make preparation simple.

More than a listening lesson

A Dish of Ice Cream gives learners a meaningful reason to communicate. Its unexpected ending opens up discussion about kindness, assumptions, patience and the importance of treating others with respect.

It is a lesson your learners are likely to remember long after the class has finished.

Download the complete lesson

Get instant access to the lesson plan, printable worksheets, digital presentation, downloadable audio and supporting images.

Download A Dish of Ice Cream and bring this touching story to your classroom today.