Animal Idioms and “as ____ as a ____” Phrases

So, I have been working with my students on idioms, because I have realized just how many I use in my everyday speech that they ask me about.  It’s a good subject to teach, because it helps with fluency and although it is definitely a more “academic” set of lessons than, say, vocabulary, the kids find them funny and so it doesn’t feel as “serious” to them as, say, a discussion of gerunds.

I chose to focus on animal-based idioms, since I work with mostly 5th and 6th graders, with some 7th or 8th graders on rare occasion.  It appeals more to their sensibilities, and since they cover animals several times in their textbooks, I know that they have a good enough vocabulary in that lesson for it to work without me having to teach the vocab that goes along with it.

 

As for the lesson itself, here’s how I do it:

• First I introduce the concept of idioms.  To make it funny, I try to come up with a sentence beforehand that I can say that is as chock-full of idioms as I can.  I explain that while to them it may sound like gibberish, to a native speaker, it is completely understandable.  I explain their importance in the language, and why they should learn some.

• I go over some animal-based idioms, such as “raining cats and dogs”, “like a bull in a china shop”, “smell a rat”, etc.  Don’t do this for too long, or you will lose their attention.  I try to do a lot of eliciting at this point, to keep their attention and to give them some agency in what they’re learning, and to show them that they know more than they think they do.

• After that, I write “As _______ as a _____.” up on the board.  I go over some common idioms that use this structure.  ”As stubborn as a mule.”, “As strong as an ox.”, “As fierce as a tiger.”, etc.  Give them enough to get the idea, but few enough that again, you don’t lose them or take away too much material from the next step.

• After giving those examples, I write a list of animals on the board.  I tell the students to think about the traits of the animals, and come up with their own idioms that use that structure.

• I give them about 10 minutes for this, and encourage them to use their dictionaries (so that there is variety).  When they are finished, I say the name of one of the animals in the list, and ask the students what they wrote down, and ask them to use it as a whole phrase.

• If there is time left over, I do the reverse, but verbally, so the students can be more relaxed than they are when I ask them to write.  I say the names of traits (fast, wise, spotted, etc) and then ask them to think of animals that could work for the first half of the idiom.

 

Below the cut are some of the idioms you might use as examples for the “as ___ as a ___” samples, as well as a list of animals that work well for the creative parts of the lesson, and some links to lists of idioms:

Spelling Game

So, this is a game I have played with my classes recently that can easily be adapted to all different levels.  My student range from barely being able to form a coherent sentence to being able to write short paragraphs, so I have found that this is a good way to allow all the different levels (class-to-class levels vary heavily, as well as within classes) to participate without anyone feeling too embarrassed.

So, come up with categories, first.  These can vary based on the ability level of your students, but there should be some variety in difficulty as well, to allow for different student skill levels within a given class.  I will list some categories I use at the end of the post, with notes about difficulty.

Once you have written the categories on the board, write the numbers 1-5, with space to provide an answer.  The task of the students is to come to the board, pick a category, and write 3 or 5 correctly spelled words from that category.  I give my students 2 tries to spell a word correctly, 3 if the class is particularly low level.  If the students can write three words, they get one reward (sticker, candy, whatever you prefer to use), if they can write 5, they get 2.  If they pick from one of the hard categories or one of the affixes, the reward doubles, so if they write 3, they get 2, if they write 5, they get 4.

For my students, I usually use candy because I see the students so rarely, but if I had only one or two schools, I would work out some sort of reward system with stars that could be redeemed for a better reward later, or something.  That part is up to you.

I do let students go to the board multiple times, but I try to choose students who have not gone, before returning to students who have gone to the board already, and I generally put a cap on participation – usually 3-4 times, depending on the size of the class.  I also encourage them to volunteer early on in the game, because by going early, there is less of a chance that someone else will get to the words that they were going to write, first.  I also generally let them look at their dictionaries/books for the first 5-10 minutes of class, and then have them put them away.  If I don’t let them look at all, they tend to clam up, as they’re too intimidated by the task.  Letting them look at their book makes them realize that they do know a lot more words than they had thought.

I have now done this lesson 12 times, and it has gone over phenomenally well in all but a couple classes, and even in those it went over moderately well.

The Categories

♦♦♦

Easy Categories:

• Food
• Animals
• Clothes
• Sports
• Countries
• Colors

Moderate Categories:

• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Mammals
• Reptiles
• Insects
• Furniture
• Jobs
• Plants

Hard Categories:

• Cities
• Languages
• Emotions
• Tools
• Musical Instruments

Affix Categories:

• un-
• re-
• pre-
• -ing
• -ize
• -ise
• de-
• ex-
• in-