English+lesson+Online+thesauri

Lesson plan: Idioms

 * Online Tool Type**: Monolingual (Online) Dictionary & Thesaurus
 * Aims**: find idioms relating to a particular vocabulary field
 * Objectives**: students learn how to use a dictionary; they learn new vocab sorted by fields; they put them into context and learn interesting idioms; they rephrase their meaning by explaining them with own words
 * Level:** Intermediate and higher
 * Skills:** Writing, Reading, Speaking
 * Arrangement:** group work with 4 students each
 * Time:** 90 minutes

1. Brainstorming - Write the word "idiom" on the board and make sure students know what this word means. Ask them to give you some they already know like "to kill two birds with one stone" etc. 2. Divide class into groups of four, giving each group an idiom field like sports, food, animals, bodyparts, colours etc. (pick them by the catchwords already suggested by students during the brainstorming) 3. Ask students of each group to choose four subcategories, e.g. one colour for each student for the colour idiom group; one sport for each student for the sports group etc. They can choose them by their own preference, maybe somebody likes football, the other prefers the colour green etc.

spoon in your mouth || As good as gold || greener on the other side || Once in a blue moon || To be silver-tongued || A heart of gold ||
 * == == || =**Colour**= ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * = =**Subcategories**= ||= ===** Red **=== ||= ===** Green **=== ||= ===** Blue **=== ||= ===** Silver **=== ||= ===** Gold **=== ||
 * || Paint the town red || To have green fingers || A bolt from the blue || To be born with a silver
 * || Catch so. red-handed || The grass is always
 * || Like a red rag to a bull || To be green with envy || Until you are blue in the face || Every cloud has a silver lining || Worth its weight in gold ||

4. Students look up their words in a monolingual dictionary and write down at least three idioms they found. Afterwards, they present them to the class. The other students guess their meaning. In case they do not know it, the student explains the idiom with his/her own words. 5. In a later session, ask students to make their own crosswords choosing similar topics. This revises vocabulary, students have to give definitions for unknown words. In addition, ask which idioms they remember.