Color Idioms in Action

Target audience: 2nd year SHS students

Objective: To introduce idioms in general and idioms using colors specifically. This lesson follows a textbook lesson about color meanings.

Materials: Two worksheets, blackboard, chalk

Procedure:Warm up: Introducing idioms. Explain the general idea; idioms are phrases that mean something other than the dictionary definition of each word. Write these idioms on the left side of the board: Give it your best shot. Hitting the books.A piece of cake. Read each aloud, have the students repeat after you. Write the meanings on the right side of the board but mix up the order: Try your hardest. Studying. Easy. Have the class vote by hands which meaning goes with which idiom.

Idiom quiz: Next hand out the color idioms quiz sheet. Students should work in pairs to choose the correct color for each idiom. Have them circle the letter of their choice, they can write the correct answer into the blank space afterward.
Write each idiom phrase(listed in the Additional information section below) on the boardwhile the students work. Students should not be expected to actually figure out the answer to each idiom since the colors often repeat but with vastly different meanings. Therefore, I recommend a 5-7 minute time limit depending on the class. Give them enough time to get through most of them and try to answer, but not so much time that they agonize over the answers.
After the time is up, ask for volunteers to fill in each blank or have the class vote. Have students repeat each idiom phrase after all of the answers have been covered and you’ve explained the meaning and usage.

Idioms in action:Still in pairs, students should write a dialogue using at least 3 idiom phrases. I allowed them to write any situation with any characters they wanted as long as they used at least 3 idioms.
If there is time left, ask for volunteers to read their dialogue to the class. Tell students before they start that at the end of class they may volunteer for participation points and that you will collect the papers to check.

Additional information:

For the dialogue, the point was to check their understanding of the way to use the new phrases. I instructed them not to copy the sentences from the quiz sheet. Plugging the same sentence into a conversation only shows minimal understanding. Of course, many of them did copy my sentences. There is a marking area at the bottom of the worksheet. Have the students write the idiom phrases they used in the top boxes and you mark in the bottom boxes (I used O for correct usage, X for incorrect, and C for sentences copied directly from the quiz sheet.

Color Idioms

An idiom is a phrase that has a different meaning than the dictionary meaning for each word. Choose the correct color to complete each sentence. The idiom phrase is in the box.

  1. I don’t believe in being untruthful, but sometimes it’s good to tell a ______lie to avoid
    信じる 虚偽の 避ける
    hurting somebody’s feelings.
    ～を害する 感情
  1. GrayB. WhiteC. YellowD. Green
  1. They caught him ______-handed as he tried to steal some jeans from the shop.
    ～なので 盗む
  1. OrangeB. RedC. YellowD. Black
  1. I got a call out of the ______from a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years.

電話があった

  1. BlueB. GreenC. YellowD. Purple
  1. You’re lucky you always get to do fun things. I only get to go on vacation once in a ______
    運のよい
    moon.
  1. OrangeB. RedC BlueD. Yellow
  1. You should see my mother’s garden. She’s got a ______thumb. She can make anything grow.
    庭 成長する
  1. BrownB. GreenC. BlackD. Orange
  1. “Hi! How are you? You look sad.”

“Actually, I’m feeling ______.”
実は

  1. BlueB. GreenC. YellowD. Pink
  1. During the storm our neighborhood lost electricity, we had a ______out.
    嵐 ご近所 電気
  1. BrownB. WhiteC. BlueD. Black
  1. “You’re lucky! If you hadn’t missed the party, you would have gotten food poisoning too.”
    逃す 食中毒

“I guess every cloud has a ______lining.”
～と思う

  1. SilverB. YellowC. BlueD. White
  1. The man ran away when the cat hissed because he is a ______-belliedcoward.
    ｼｭｰｯという声を出す ～な腹をした 臆病者
  1. PinkB. GreenC. RedD. Yellow
  1. Our boss gave the ______light, so we started working on the project.
    上司
  1. RedB. YellowC. GreenD. White
  1. She was so angry that she was seeing ______.
  1. PurpleB. BlackC. WhiteD. Red
  1. He’s very ______, he just started working here a month ago.
  1. GreenB. WhiteC. YellowD. Orange
  1. I was tickled ______to receive such a nice postcard.
    くすぐる 受け取る
  1. BlueB. WhiteC. RedD. Pink
  1. My family likes soccer, but my uncle likes basketball. He is the ______sheep of the family.

A. BlackB. RedC. WhiteD. Orange

These are the phrases to write on the board during the quiz:

Idiom 1 / Idiom 2 / Idiom 3

Color idioms in action!

Now, write a dialogue with your partner using AT LEAST 3 idiom phrases from the board. Any situation is ok! Please write the phrases you use in the boxes below.

______

Idiom check: