Lesson Plan:Colour Idioms

Lesson Plan: Colour idioms.

Lesson Level:   Senior                     Duration:  45

Lesson Title:     Colour Idioms

Grammar and Vocabulary

Use of idiomatic English, especially idioms involving colours .

Lesson Objectives

 Students will learn a number of expressions and idioms that involve colours.

Materials Required

 Work sheet containing list of colours idioms with colour names removed,

Preparation

 Prepare work sheets

Procedure

1 Write “Idiom” on the board. Elicit ideas about its meaning. Add correct meaning  “a group of words whose meaning is not obvious from just the words”. (Note. If Animal Idioms Lesson has already been done then this is revision.)

2 Write some examples.

Today I feel a bit blue.

Today I’m in the pink.

It’s there in black and white.

He’s seeing red.

3 Ask students for their ideas about the meanings.

   Explain the real meanings.

            sad, healthy, written down, angry

   

4  Explain the worksheet task.

There is one sheet for each group.

There are twenty colour idioms.

Groups must discuss the idioms and choose a colour for each one.

DO NOT WRITE ON THE PAPER.

Groups can use dictionaries or ask for help with words they don’t

know..

5 Hand out the worksheets. Allow at least fifteen minutes. Monitor and assist as needed,

7 Go through the answers. Explain the correct colour for each one and what they idiom means (and why, if it isn’t already clear.)

8 EXTENSION TASK

If lesson finishes early tell groups to think of an idiom in Chinese that involve colours and to translate it into English.

Ask each group for their idiom and the meaning (literal and figurative).

BE CAREFUL OF YELLOW - in Chinese it has a sexual meaning.

Notes

In English there are many colour idioms - phrases that use colours and have a special meaning.

Look at the sentences below. Each one has a word missing. The missing word is a colour.

These colours are each used THREE times: black, white, red, green, blue

These colours are each used just once: brown, pink, grey, golden, silver.

Read the sentences and decide which colour each one is missing.

DON’T WRITE ON THIS PAPER

1. He hit me so hard that I have a __________ eye.

2. I didn’t expect to win the prize. It came like a bolt out of the __________.

3. Don’t disturb him. He is thinking about something. He is in a __________ study.

4. Look at his new car! It makes me __________ with envy.

5. I have no money left in the bank. In fact, I owe them money. I am in the __________.

6. I surrender. You win. I will wave the __________ flag.

7. He almost never comes to see me, just once in a __________ moon.

8. He’s the best player in the team. He’s the __________ boy.

9. My garden always looks wonderful because I have __________ fingers.

10. We should have seen the warning signs. There were lots of __________ flags.

11. Why did you buy that broken chair? It’s a real __________ elephant.

12. Nobody is sure of the rules. It’s a __________ area.

13. He tried to steal all the money but was caught __________-handed.

14. I told her that I liked her new dress because I didn’t want her to be unhappy. It was just a little __________ lie.

15. They said we can start our new project. We have been given the __________ light.

16. He’s been arrested and taken to jail. The boys in __________ have got him now.

17. I didn’t buy this in a shop, I got it from a man I met in a bar. I got it on the __________ market.

18. She was so happy when I gave her the present. She was tickled __________.

19. I was feeling sick but that meant I didn’t have to go to school. Every cloud has a __________ lining.

20. I didn’t do my homework so I am in the teacher’s __________ books.