Ideas for Idiom Activities

As a way to go beyond the dull as dishwater “challenge words” provided by our reading program, I led my students through a study of idioms. I put all of my idiom lists on Byrdseed.TV for subscribers.

The Tasks

Here are the weekly tasks we used with our idiom study.

Monday:

• Use each idiom in a sentence.
• Make your sentences interesting, unusual, and exciting!
• Optional: connect your sentences into a story.

Tuesday:

• Sketch two scenes.
• The first should show the literal meaning of the idiom.
• The second should show the figurative meaning.

Wednesday:

• Pick at least one idiom.
• Research that idiom’s origins.
• Find at least three sources, because there may be multiple possible origins.
• I wrote more about researching idiom origins here.

Thursday:

• Write a summary of your week using each idiom.
• This summary must be completely made up. Do not describe your actual week.
• Make it fun and entertaining!

Resources

• Check out all of the idiom videos at Byrdseed.TV
• Download the task card as a PDF or through Google Slides
• See the video version of these tasks at Byrdseed.TV.