Today’s post is about food idioms. It focuses on materials you can use in the classroom for some of the common food idioms that we use in the United States. It is structured to be used in combination with the food idioms post on the English Language blog (http://eslblogs.waketech.edu/esl-english/)which has information and practice for students! Use them together and save lesson planning time! Scroll to the bottom of the page to find quizzes.

Lesson Plans

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/lessons/learning-idioms-in-esl/ This lesson plan is not specific to just food idioms, but you can follow it and use the idioms of your choice.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/dailylp/dailylp/dailylp064.shtml

Video #1

Butter someone up – be extra nice to get someone to do something

Take it with a (pinch) of sale – be careful, don’t believe everything you are hearing

A piece of cake – easy

Go pear shaped — get fat

Not my cup of tea – something you don’t like

Video #2

Take the cake – be #1

A bag egg – be a bad person

A big cheese – a leader or important person

Bread and butter – basic necessities

Cool as a cucumber – to be calm and relaxed

Cup of tea – enjoy it, like something

A hard nut to crack – to be difficult to understand or figure out

Out to lunch – be crazy or mad

Apple of my eye – someone you like very much

Couch potato – lazy person

A piece of cake – easy

Spill the beans – reveal a secret

Take something with a grain of salt – believe only part of something

Have a bun in the oven – to be pregnant

To butter someone up – be extra nice to someone for personal benefit

One smart cookie – very intelligent

List of even more idioms in chart form: https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/idioms-food.htm

Quiz about food idioms:  https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/idioms-food-quiz.htm

Practice using idioms:  http://a4esl.org/q/h/id-lb-food.html  Students read the sentence and select the correct word/idiom from the drop down box.