These idioms, which seem to be about the weather, might be confusing for your adult ESL students. Why would someone spit into the wind? Where does one apply for a snow job? What kind of footwear is needed for walking on thin ice? Adult students love learning new idioms, so why not give them the figurative language they need to recognize when the topic only sounds like the weather?

With this, your students will learn 36 idioms and expressions that they might hear or want to use. They’ll be practicing and reviewing all 36 with activities that make the terms memorable. These pages will be the ones that go home with them, not get tossed in the trash on their way out at the end of class.

Idioms are the kind of everyday English that fluent speakers use without thinking twice but present a roadblock to people learning English. That’s why your students need to understand that chasing rainbows is not about Pride Month and being told to put anything where the sun don’t shine is rude and dismissive. Once they get that, they can start having fun making figurative language part of their daily communication.  

WHAT'S INSIDE THIS PDF:

✅ definitions handout

✅ define them worksheet

✅ true or false worksheet

✅ matching worksheet

✅ multiple-choice & fill-in-the-blank worksheets

✅ personal response worksheets

✅ dialogue starters

✅ matching card activities

✅ "I Have...Who Has...?" game

✅ answer keys (of course)

🟢 71 pages 🟢

I designed this for your adult ESL students. It’s what I always wished I’d had when students requested/demanded/begged for idioms.

This is included in my Idiom Activities Pack Bundle.

⚠️⚠️NOTE: When I taught adults, I sometimes taught adult vocabulary. At the very least, I wanted them to understand what they were hearing if they heard it outside the classroom. Sometimes I’d have a group of extremely conservative adults, and then I kept things rated G. 

You know your students better than I do, so please use white-out if needed and print the versions that don’t include “a snowball’s chance in hell” and “where the sun don’t shine” if those are a better match for your students.