English Idioms Lesson Plan With Fun Activities

This lesson plan focuses on introducing English idioms to beginner English language learners. Students will learn what idioms are and how they are used in everyday English.

To learn and practice English idioms, students will play three interactive activities followed by a review activity to reinforce what they learned during the lesson. The lesson plan below is designed for beginners and will last 60 minutes, however, the games and activities can easily be adapted for different levels and lesson times.

English Idioms Lesson Plan

Introduction (10 minutes)

To begin, write the English idiom “It’s raining cats and dogs.” on the board and ask students to guess what it means. Ask them if cats and dogs actually fall from the sky when it rains. They will surely answer “No”.

Next, explain to them that “It’s raining cats and dogs.” is an idiom and explain that idioms are expressions that have a figurative meaning, and not a literal one. Show students some more English Idioms and have them guess what they mean. You can find a list of Funny English Idioms here.

Once students have an understanding of what idioms are, tell them the objective of the lesson. Tell them they will learn some common English idioms and their meanings, and practice using them while playing some fun games.

Activity 1: Idiom Matching (10 minutes)

For this first activity, you will need to prepare some cards/strips of paper in advance. There should be two sets: one set should have the idioms and one set should have the meanings.

Ask students to close their eyes and place their hands on their heads. Then, walk around the class and give students half the class an idiom card and the other half a meaning card. Once each student has a card, tell everyone to open their eyes and look at their card. Next, students should stand up and walk around the class, talking with their classmates to find the matching pairs. Once they find the pair, they should sit down with their partner.

Once all matching pairs have been found and all students are sitting down again, ask each pair of students to share their idiom and its meaning with the class. Collect the cards and then play again.

Activity 2: Idioms In Context (10 minutes)

For this next activity, you will need to prepare some short dialogues that contain English idioms in advance. Write one of the dialogues on the board with the idioms missing. Read the dialogue together as a class and have students guess what idiom should go in the blank spaces.

Once all the blank spaces have been filled, have students practice the completed dialogue with their partner. After a few minutes, write a new dialogue on the board with the idioms missing, and start again.

Activity 3: Idioms Art (20 minutes)

This third activity is really fun and a great way to get students thinking creatively about idioms. Place students into pairs or small groups and give each group some poster paper.

Next, explain that they must choose one of the English idioms from the lesson and then draw a literal interpretation of it. For example, if a pair/group chooses “elephant in the room,” they might draw a big elephant surrounded by people in a small room. To give students some inspiration, you can show them some of these English Idiom Pictures.

Give students 10 to 15 minutes to finish their idiom artwork, and then have each pair/group share it with the class and ask the other students to guess what idiom it is.

Review (10 minutes)

To review the lesson, first, check students’ understanding of what idioms are by asking them to provide their own definitions of what they think idioms are. Next, ask them to share any idioms they found particularly interesting or challenging and address any lingering confusion. Finally, ask students to line up at the door and have them tell you one idiom from the lesson as they leave the class.