Make idioms easy as pie with this lesson that has your students create their very own comic! Students will write idioms in speech bubbles for cartoon captions in this fun figurative language activity.
Students will understand what idioms are and be able to use them to write expressive cartoon captions.
Introduction
(10 minutes)
Gather students together and ask them to think of funny sayings they’ve heard from parents or other adults that don’t make sense in the literal, or exact, meaning. For example: Don’t cry over spilled milk.
You can then give the figurative meaning of your example. Explain that figurative meanings are the opposite of literal meanings, and are often used for drama or comparison. For example, the figurative meaning of the sentence above is: Don't whine about something that already happened that you can’t do anything about.
Explain that these are wise sayings, or idioms, that are meant to remind people of previously learned lessons.
Encourage students to share other idioms they may have heard. Write any down on the board that fit into the figurative language category.
Explain that an idiom is called a “figure of speech” and that understanding it works best when creating a figure, or a picture, in our heads to describe it.
Explain that the class will create cartoon pictures and speech bubbles to describe some of the figures of speech learned today.