Idioms KS2 – How to teach them in context

by Nikki Gamble

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When I think about teaching idioms in KS2, a certain story comes to mind…

Recently, I was visiting a primary school in Birmingham to work with some Y2 children. The headteacher looked in to check that we had everything we needed. “I’ll pop my head around the door later,” she said.  

One of the boys sitting next to me paled and looked aghast.

He’d understood that the head would be coming on its own without the rest of the body.

I am sure we can all see the funny side to this story. But, it revealed to me how much we take idiomatic speech for granted.

And, as in this case, the particular challenges to understanding for additional language learners, who may not have the background of extensive conversations in English, which is how we mainly acquire our common figurative expressions. 

Idioms are expressions where the implied meaning is different from the literal meaning, and our language is awash with them.

There are lots of justifications for us taking time to teach idioms; they are essential for comprehension, knowing common idioms will increase reading fluency, and it’s also a lot of fun.

But what’s the best way to go about it? 

There are some principles to keep in mind.

First, it is always most productive to teach language in context – either during conversation or reading – and avoid decontextualised exercises. Secondly, it’s best to teach idioms in KS2 in groups.

So, for example, we can teach idioms about emotions or plants together. Choose those in common usage rather than obscure examples.

Once the children have defined and understood the meaning of an idiom, provide opportunities for them to apply their knowledge. 

Here are some approaches I have used recently. Both lessons were part of an extended teaching sequence, but the focus here is specifically on teaching idioms. 

How to teach idioms in KS2

For one Y4 class, I based our idiom lessons around their reading of Carol Ann Duffy’s The Tear Thief.

After reading and discussing initial responses, the children returned to the text to look more closely at the language.

For instance, the text includes the sentence: ‘The Tear Thief could tell that just one of these tears was worth a hundred cried over spilt milk or a thousand crocodile tears.’ 

First, we focused on the phrase ‘crocodile tears’.

As a class, we discussed the difference between tears that showed genuine emotion and tears that were just for show. Pupils shared their experiences of both.

For instance, one girl talked about footballers feigning tears when trying to get a player from the opposing team into trouble for a rough tackle.

We then talked about other common idioms on the theme of crying, using images to show their literal meaning and then talking about the intended meaning.

These included ‘cry your eyes out’, ‘cry for the moon’, ‘floods of tears’, and ‘cry a river’. 

I showed pupils a picture of a young child crying over spilt milk. I explained that when we use the idiom ‘don’t cry over spilt milk’, we mean there’s no point in getting upset about small things that we cannot change.

The children then acted out their own short scenes for one of the crying idioms we’d discussed. The rest of the class had to identify which idiom they were showing. 

History of idioms

Telling origin stories can help the meaning of an idiom to stick in pupils’ minds. But more importantly, it shows that language arises out of real contexts, even if the context may not be immediately obvious to us anymore.

For example, did you know that the phrase ‘crocodile tears’ comes from an ancient belief that the crocodile would show remorse before killing its prey?  

If you have children who speak more than one language in the class, KS2 idioms are a fantastic resource for language study.

For example, lots of European languages have exactly the same idiom for ‘crocodile tears’. This is because it has been passed down via Latin roots; larme de crocodile in French, krokodilstranen weinen in German and lacrime di coccodrillo in Italian.

Sometimes the idioms will be similar, as in this case, and in other instances, the idioms will be culturally specific.

In France and Spain, for instance, they use the expression pleurer comme une Madeleine. No it doesn’t mean that you are crying like a cake! It comes from a religious reference to the tears of Mary Magdalene.

When you explore children’s languages, you also explore their cultures – and they become experts in the class, too.

Try this as an extension activity if you have pupils who speak multiple languages, or to link to an MFL lesson. 

Types of idioms

In The Tear Thief lesson, we found crying idioms directly from the book; in my next example, we used idioms related to the story, but not taken from the text.

After reading and an initial exploration of Levi Pinfold’s Greenling, a Y5 class returned to the text to review the themes.

I gave them cards with idioms or definitions on the theme of growing and nature.

Half the pupils were given an idiom, the other half were given a definition.

You can tailor these to individual needs by selecting easier or more challenging examples. Here is a sample of some of the idioms I gave out: 

To begin, the children moved around the space, trying to find an idiom – definition match. They would then sit down when they found the correct pairing.

This involved a problem-solving approach and required more effort than had they been told the idiom meanings at the outset.

We followed with a discussion – we talked about the literal meanings of the idioms, and which was the correct definition. 

Idioms in context

The next step was to return to the book. In their idiom-definition pairs, children had to locate an episode in the story to which their idiom could apply.

For example, the pair that had ‘nip it in the bud’ chose the page where Mrs Barleycorn is urging her husband to get rid of the Greenling before he destroys their lives.

The pair with ‘sow seeds of suspicion’ located a page where the local people are gathered around the Greenling.

A preacher-type character appears to be telling the crowd why the Greenling should be destroyed.

This application stage proved to be particularly powerful, not only in learning these idiomatic phrases but also in encouraging a reflective reading of the story. 

There are lots of groups of KS2 idioms for you to explore with your classes – sport, weather, clothing, animals and time work well. Enjoy! 

Nikki Gamble is director of Just Imagine and runs the Take One Book programme. She is the author of Exploring Children’s Literature and co-author of Guiding Readers.