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Weekly Warmer
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.
2. Ask your class 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. (Note: 'a flowering heart' and 'cut your head' are not idioms.)
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
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