Idioms

Idioms are so much fun.  I love teaching figurative language.  I teach most of it with poetry, but idioms, I teach in isolation.  We will write later and make sure we include some in our writing.  I use Fred Gwynne's books to introduce idioms.

Most of the idioms in these books need to be explained, but soon the kids are laughing so hard at what the little girl pictures her parents saying.  (I also told them who Herman Munster is and showed them pictures of one of my favorite shows when I was growing up!)

We then read a list of idioms that I found on the Internet and discussed some familiar ones.  We talked and joked about what the little girl in the books might have pictured with them.  We did a super simple foldable (in fact, I let them do as many as they had time for, which meant some kids did 3 or 4 foldables) to illustrate our understanding. 

I handed everyone a strip of manila about 3" wide. We folded over 1/3 of the strip.  ONE of my students actually measured the 9 inches across the strip and divided by 3 and folded over exactly 3"...he's amazing, right?!

On the left side, we wrote the idiom. On the folded over flap, we illustrated what the little girl in the books might have pictured when she heard the idiom. This made the foldable funnier to the kids.  The "big reveal" to the idiom's meaning is written under the flap. They LOVED this super simple foldable. 

Idiom meanings under the flap!

Please share your ideas for teaching idioms.  I'd love to hear new ways to add to what I already do!