This Completing Idioms Worksheet asks 5th Grade students to finish six common idioms from memory and write three of their own, with an answer key, so figurative language practice takes one page.
This idiom meanings worksheet helps 5th grade students explain common idioms with context clues and tell idioms from literal phrases. An answer key is included, making practice and checking quick and easy.
Students match food idioms, similes, and metaphors to their meanings and sort them by kind in this food for thought idiom simile metaphor activity for 2nd to 5th grade, with an answer key included.
This playing with idioms activity has 3rd to 5th grade students match idiom cards to their real meanings, draw funny literal pictures and read idioms in stories. An answer key is included.
Using Describing Idioms Worksheet, students choose four idioms to describe through writing and drawing in order to use them in their writing.
This L.3.5 common core activity gives 3rd to 5th grade students idiom task cards, a tips chart, and a practice page. An answer key is included for quick checking.
No, it is not actually raining cats and dogs
An idiom is a phrase that means something different from its words. In 5th grade, kids learn to spot idioms in their reading and figure out the real meaning from context, so "the test was a piece of cake" means easy, not tasty. They tell idioms apart from similes, metaphors and proverbs, and start using them on purpose to give their writing some personality. The click comes when a student reads "she spilled the beans" and laughs because they get the joke instead of picturing a mess.
Idioms are funny, so we let kids enjoy them. These moves turn silly phrases into real understanding.
Kids fold a page in half. On one side they draw the literal meaning of "it's raining cats and dogs," animals falling from the sky. On the other side they draw what it really means. The silly picture makes the real meaning impossible to forget.
Why it works: children learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withDescribing Idioms WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Say the first half of an idiom, "hold your...", and have kids write the ending and the meaning on a whiteboard. Five a day as a warm-up builds a bank of idioms they recognize instantly when they meet them in a book.
Why it works: pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than rereading it, one of the strongest findings in learning research (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it withCompleting Idioms WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Read a sentence aloud like "After the long hike, Dad was ready to hit the hay" and think out loud: "He's tired, the hike was long, so hit the hay must mean go to sleep." Then let partners crack the next one the same way.
Why it works: handing over the work step by step, from teacher to student, is one of the most widely used teaching frameworks (Pearson and Gallagher, 1983).
Try it withIdiom Meanings WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Idioms practically beg to be acted out. Here is how we play with them.
ActivitiesTeams act out an idiom literally while the class guesses it, then explains what it really means.
Open Playing With Idioms Activity →
ActivitiesSort food phrases into idioms, similes and metaphors. "Cool as a cucumber" sparks a great debate!
Open Food for Thought Idiom Simile Metaphor Activity →
ActivitiesKids hunt for idioms in a chapter book or in the conversation at dinner, and keep a running tally of the funniest ones they find.
Open L.3.5 Common Core Activity →Teacher favorites right now: Completing Idioms Worksheet, Idiom Meanings Worksheet and Food for Thought Idiom Simile Metaphor Activity.
An idiom is a common saying that does not mean exactly what its words say. "Break a leg" means good luck, and "under the weather" means feeling sick. Fifth graders learn to figure out the meaning from context.
A metaphor compares two things to describe one of them, like "the classroom was a zoo." An idiom is a fixed phrase whose meaning has to be learned, like "let the cat out of the bag." Some idioms started as metaphors and just stuck around.
Idioms only make sense if you already know them, so kids who are new to English or who think very literally can find them confusing. Explaining where an idiom came from and drawing its literal picture helps a lot.
Great starters are piece of cake, spill the beans, break the ice, hit the hay, under the weather and costs an arm and a leg. Kids hear these all the time, so they get to use them right away.
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