Monday, August 06, 2007

IDIOMS

try this group activity at school:


Idioms - True and False - Heads and Hearts

This warmer about idioms encourages discussion and should also be a lot of fun!

Level: Upper-Intermediate and above

Language Aims: Learning idioms and discussing and sharing ideas.
Time: 10 - 15 minutes
Preparation: Take list of idioms below to class.

Procedure:
1. Hand out idioms or write them on the board. [or show this on the data projector]
2. Ask the Room5ians to work out the meanings of these idioms. Encourage them to be imaginative and to avoid using a dictionary. Get them to work out the meanings individually.
3. Place students in pairs to compare their answers and choose the one that they both think is right for each idiom.
4. Then put the students in bigger groups - groups of four if possible - and tell them that two of the ten idioms are not real idioms, they are made-up phrases with no idiomatic meaning! Ask the groups to work out which are the false idioms, and agree on the meanings of the true idioms.
5. At the end get them to use their dictionaries to find out the answers.

Idioms:
a bleeding heart
eat your heart out
a heart of gold
a flowering heart
cross my heart
bury your head in the sand
come to a head
cut your head
have your head in the clouds
off the top of your head

7 comments:

Miss Candy said...

those are between life and death- guilty or not guilty? Wait, no more suggestions- game has loaded must play!

Kitty Kat said...

are they like those sayings such as like...um...hold your tounge or break a leg?

Miss Candy said...

i want to make one up..........ummm, tear friendship apart.............naaa, thats stupid!

IM A ROOM5IAN said...

Cool!! thats great!

idiom
[íddi əm]
(plural idioms)
noun
1. fixed expression with nonliteral meaning: a fixed distinctive expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the combined meanings of its actual words
2. natural way of using language: the way of using a language that comes naturally to its native speakers
3. stylistic expression: the style of expression of a specific person or group
4. distinguishing artistic style: the characteristic style of an artist or artistic group

Microsoft® Encarta® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

IM A ROOM5IAN said...

"Variety is the spice of life"

This phrase comes from William Cowper's poem, "The Task" (1785): "Variety is the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor."

something that you say which means life is more interesting when it changes often, you try different things, and you have many different experiences.

http://www.answers.com/variety%20is%20the%20spice%20of%20life
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Variety+is+the+spice+of+life

catgirl said...

Yo, nice post! I think those a good examples of idioms. The words in idioms, when put together, do not have a literal meaning (if you don't know what THAT means, I will be worried). It's really cool. And yes, break a leg is one of many idioms, and I think 'feeling under the weather' is one also. They're phrases, almost puns sometimes.
Okay then, see you!

Catarara said...

that sounds like fun