Introduction: 

These are activities for advanced students to introduce and practise idioms and phrases relating to school. Students match the sentence halves; complete the sentences with the missing expressions, decide if the statements are true for them and discuss the statements with their classmates.

Level: C1

Time: 60 minutes

Objectives:

1. To match idiom halves to make idioms and phrases relating to school.
2. To complete the sentences with the missing idioms.
3. To decide if the sentences are true/ not true for the students themselves.
4. To discuss the statements with a classmate.

Materials (Click on the worksheet below to download the PDF file):

1. There is no place like…school Worksheet, one per student.

Procedure:

1. Write the following questions on the board and ask students to briefly answer them in pairs: What’s your first memory of school? Do you think your school days are the best days of your life? What do you think students should be taught at school but aren’t?
2. Hand students ‘There is no place like…school’ Worksheet.
3. Individually, students match the idiom halves and then compare their answers with a classmate.
4. Check the answers as a class – you can make this more competitive by asking each pair for their answer and awarding a point for the correct answer.
5. Now, individually ask students to complete the sentences with the missing idioms before they compare them with their partner.
6. Check the answers as a class.
7. Ask students to read the sentences again and decide if there are or aren’t true for them.
8. Put the students into pairs and ask them to compare how many things they have in common and to discuss the statements in more detail.
9. At the end ask the students to describe one experience they have in common with their classmate and one that was different.

Fast finishers:

1. Ask students to come up with some ideas of what an ideal school should look like and write them down in bullet points using the expressions studied e.g. In a ideal school students should be allowed to skip class if they are bored out of their minds.

P.S. Encourage students to watch a great Ted talk about education: https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

Related posts:

You make my heart BEET 😉

Somewhere over the rainbow 

It’s game time

Zzz

Nothing changes if nothing changes

The proof is in the pudding

It’s all a numbers game