Spanish I · 30 minutes
Suggested grades 9–12 · Unit 2: Describe and Make a Choice · Lesson 2 of 2
Make a Choice at a Fictional Café
Ask about an option, clarify a price and respond to a partner’s information.
Mr. S Teaches · Original starter lesson · HS-SP1-04 · Grade range is planning guidance.Language practice target
Practice target: familiar words, supported phrases and short sentences. This is a classroom task target, not an independently assessed proficiency rating or a guaranteed Spanish I exit level.
Watch, notice, discuss
Video choices for this lesson
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Learn to Order Food in Spanish
By Butterfly Spanish
Review restaurant ordering phrases; adapt only food and nonalcoholic-drink examples to the fictional café.
Open on YouTube: Learn to Order Food in Spanish (opens a new tab) ↗How to order food in Spanish
By Butterfly Spanish
Compare another ordering explanation; preview and select food-ordering examples, skipping adult beverage references.
Open on YouTube: How to order food in Spanish (opens a new tab) ↗How to agree in Spanish – Top 12 ways
By Butterfly Spanish
Practice confirming a choice politely; use the lesson’s fictional prices for the budget calculation.
Open on YouTube: How to agree in Spanish – Top 12 ways (opens a new tab) ↗How can you confirm an item and its price before agreeing on a choice?
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Learning objective
Complete a short exchange that selects two items within a fictional budget and confirms a detail.
Before you begin
- Use basic numbers through ten and a familiar question pattern.
Gather your materials
- Paper and pencil
- The original Spanish text and phrase bank included in this lesson
Language to know
- quisiera
- I would like; a polite request chunk in this activity.
- cuesta
- Costs; asks or states a singular item’s price.
- ¿Cuánto cuesta?
- How much does it cost?
- sin
- Without; modifies an order or description.
Understand the concept
Fictional café card: agua 2 €, bocadillo 5 €, fruta 3 €. Your role card gives a budget of 7 €. Bank: quisiera agua (I would like water), ¿cuánto cuesta la fruta?, por favor (please), gracias, ¿son siete euros? (is that seven euros?). The symbol belongs only to this invented menu; Spanish-speaking communities use different currencies and food words. The partner serving the menu must answer from the card rather than guess. Do not use real dietary or health details; preferences in this activity are fictional.
Teach it step by step
- Read menu prices and form two possible two-item combinations within seven euros.
- Practice asking the cost of an item and answering with its menu price.
- Choose a fictional customer/server role. The server reveals the price only in response to a question.
- Order two items, confirm the total and respond when the server changes one price on a clearly marked updated card.
- Swap roles and reflect on which question helped resolve uncertainty.
Make the thinking visible
Worked example or model response
A: Quisiera un bocadillo y agua, por favor. ¿Cuánto cuesta? B: Siete euros. A: ¿Son siete euros? B: Sí. A: Gracias. If the server’s updated bocadillo price is six euros, water plus bocadillo costs eight; the customer needs another choice to keep the stated budget.
Guided practice
Together choose water and fruit, ask for their total and confirm that five euros fits the budget.
Independent practice
Use the updated card: water 2 €, sandwich 6 €, fruit 3 €. Negotiate two items within seven euros and ask one clarification question. Then explain which original combination no longer fits.
Quick assessment
What should you do if a spoken total does not match the prices you understood?
Answer key & assessment criteria
Answers and teaching guidance
- Guided: water plus fruit totals five euros. A relevant confirmation is ¿son cinco euros? with an answer tied to the card.
- Independent: water plus fruit remains five euros; sandwich plus water now costs eight, so it no longer fits seven. The exchange must ask/respond and confirm a detail rather than simply recite a price list.
- Assessment: request repetition or clarification and compare the stated items/prices; do not silently assume either speaker is correct. A teacher-checked phrase such as ¿puedes repetir? is suitable.
Look for: Check the communicative repair and relevant response, not whether the learner sounds like a particular regional speaker.
Make it work for your learner
More support
Allow paper messages and leave the menu visible. Supply a simple addition grid and request frames.
Extension challenge
Add a third choice and explain a tradeoff in a supported sentence beginning prefiero… porque… .
Verified references · Selected contributions
Standards connections
Subject-content standards
These records identify the part of a subject standard practiced here. Course placement is instructional guidance; the source’s category or band remains authoritative.
Contributes to world-language standard
Interpersonal Communication
World-Readiness Standards · All learner levels · selected introductory task
Ask, respond and confirm information to make a familiar everyday choice.
Read the official standard ↗The named standard is the identifier used in the current official summary. This supported interpersonal task practices one selected communicative purpose; it does not demonstrate the entire standard, independent spontaneous proficiency or a state course crosswalk.
Verified 2026-11-04. Selected contribution, not full attainment.