Idioms Practice with these 8 Super Fun Lessons

When will your students get bored of idioms practice? Why pigs fly!

Beyond going over the literal meaning of such phrases as, “It’s raining cats and dogs,” there are many other out-of-this-world things to try. They are the cat’s pajamas, so give them a whirl!

Check out this post about eight fun ways to get in your idioms practice!

Your students will love playing with figurative language!

1. Draw Them (But the hilarious literal version!)

Can you guess this one?:

  • Give me a hand
  • Hit the books
  • Keep an eye on you
  • You’re pulling my leg
  • Cat’s got your tongue
  • Zip your lip
  • Cold turkey
  • Wear your heart on your sleeve
  • In the doghouse
  • When pigs fly
  • Put your foot in your mouth
  • On pins and needles
  • I’ll be there with bells on
  • Bite off more than you can chew
  • Toss your cookies

2. The Easiest Idioms Practice Activity: Act It Out

This idioms practice activity is probably easiest to do in small groups. Assign each group an idiom and have them act it out for the rest of the class to guess. Some that will probably work well include:

  • All in the same boat
  • Barking up the wrong tree
  • Birds of a feather flock together
  • Crying over spilt milk
  • Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched
  • It takes two to tango
  • Let the cat out of the bag
  • Out of the frying pan and into the fire
  • Out on a limb
  • Preaching to the choir
  • Rub salt in your wound
  • The straw that broke the camel’s back

3. Using Idioms as Writing Prompts

A phrase such as “a fool and his money are soon parted” could inspire a great story. “Every cloud has a silver lining” could inspire an essay on finding something good in an otherwise bad situation. “In the heat of the moment” could be the theme behind a story about doing something foolish – or perhaps brave.

4. Use Them as Discussion Starters

“You can’t judge a book by its cover” could be the start of a discussion about false first impressions, unfairly judging, or racism. “Rome wasn’t built in a day” could start a discussion about persistence. You could have all kinds of interesting discussions around “the ends justify the means.”

SVG Image Map Example

5. Practice Idioms by Writing a Story

Challenge your students to write a story using as many idioms as they can. They will probably want to use a lot of dialogue, so this is a great way to practice using quotations properly. It would probably help to have a large list of common idioms available.

Here’s an example: (By the way, this is also great for dialogue and quotation mark practice!)

6. Create an Idiom Challenge

Over a period of days, see how many idioms your class can come up with related to a specific subject. Students could write them on a large piece of butcher paper on the wall as they come up with them throughout the week.

Some ideas are:

  • Animal idioms
  • Food idioms
  • Weather idioms
  • Location idioms
  • Idioms that mention parts of the body
  • Idioms that rhyme

7. Go a Little Deeper

Where exactly did the idiom “to cry wolf” come from?

Do your students know the story of The Boy who Cried Wolf? How about “curiosity killed the cat?” Why a cat instead of some other animal? “Raising Cain” must have biblical roots.

An idiom could be the start of a great research project!

8. Idioms Practice by Creating Your Own

What else, besides cats and dogs, could it be raining? Fish and chips? Lizards and snakes? Water balloons and superballs? That’s the way the…cookie crumbles, ball bounces, soda bubbles? Leaves fall? Carrot crunches? It’ll cost you…an arm and a leg, a finger and four toes? An ear and a bad haircut?

You can check out more idioms at GoEnglish!

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