Introduction: 

These are activities to introduce and practise idioms describing physical appearance. Students complete the idioms with the missing words, divide the idioms into Beauty and Beast categories, do a Find Someone Who activity and play a board game. As you can see there are plenty of opportunities to recycle new vocabulary. By the end of the lesson students will have used each idiom at least 6 or 7 times.

Level: C1

Time: 60 minutes

Objectives:

1. To introduce idioms describing physical appearance.
2. To complete the idioms with the missing words.
3. To divide the idioms into two categories Beauty and Beast.
4. To find students who, e.g. think that new born babies are as ugly as sin, write their names next to the sentences and ask for more details (Exercise 2).
5. To answer questions about beauty whilst playing a board game.

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

1. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder Worksheet, one per student.
2. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder board game, one per group.

Procedure:

1. Write The beholder eye the is beauty in of on the board. Ask students to unscramble the phrase and in pairs discuss if they agree or disagree with it.
2. Hand the students Beauty is in the eye of the beholder Worksheet.
3. Individually, students complete the idioms in Exercise 1 with the missing words.
4. When the students have finished, they compare their answers with a partner.
5. Check the answers as a class.
6. Now, individually again, the students decide if the idioms are used to describe attractive (Beauty) or unattractive people (Beast).
7. When they have finished, ask them to compare with their partner.
8. Elicit answers from students.
9. Next, students complete the missing words in the idioms again (exercise 2). Ask them to fold the sheet and try and do it from memory first. I try to use every opportunity for students to play with the new vocabulary as much as possible and in as many ways as possible to increase their chances of remembering the idioms.
10. Students now mingle and try to get affirmative answers from their classmates, e.g. find someone who thinks newborn babies are as ugly as sin. If the other student says ‘yes’ they have to elaborate on their answer. Allow no more than 3 minutes for each interview. When the time is up ask students to switch partners.
11. When the students have had a chance to ask everyone’s opinion, ask them which answers surprised them the most.
12. Next put the students in groups of 2 or 3, and give them a copy of Beauty is in the eye of the beholder board game and a die.
13. Players take it in turns to throw the die twice – the first throw indicates which column they should use, and the second throw indicates which row, to obtain the question.
14. When a player lands on a square all three players must answer the question from that square in as much detail as possible. Encourage students to ask each other additional questions to obtain more information. When a player lands on a square with a phrase they must use it to form a question for their partner(s) e.g.  When was the last time you were dressed to kill?
15. The game continues in the circle going left.
16. At the end, ask students what they found out about their classmates.

Fast finishers:

1. Ask students to briefly answer one of the questions (in writing) on the board game using at least 3 of the idioms studied.

Related posts:

Cold reading

Who are you?

MEOW!

Mirror Mirror on the wall…

Wanted

Recommended podcast:

http://activateyourielts.libsyn.com/ielts-vocabulary-tips-for-teachers-and-students

Check out my friend’s podcast. This week we talked about learning and recycling new vocabulary and I think it makes for an interesting episode. Enjoy.