Spring Has Sprung!

The vernal equinox was on March 20th; in order words, Spring has sprung to life.

Spring flowers; source: Pixabay

Considering the winter weather much of the US endured, it isn’t surprising that spring fever set in months ago, especially when kids couldn’t go outside for recess for such a long time.  What springs to mind is that students especially need to get outside now because they really need an unstructured break from all the standardized tests that are administered in March.  Teachers need a break, too, even if they aren’t spring chickens and have pretty much seen and done it all.  It would be great if school administrators would spring for lunch for the staff in March.  Ah well, hope springs eternal!

ELLs, especially those at lower proficiency levels, are very concrete in their thinking in English and need to have idioms explained.  Drawing the meanings of idioms—the literal as well the abstract definitions--helps them better understand this figurative language.

It's raining cats and dogs; source: Pixabay

Here are some free online resources to help teach idioms:
* ReadWriteThink: Lesson plans on idioms
* The Phrase Finder: Find the meanings of idioms
* The Idiom Connection: Alphabetical and topic lists of idioms
* English Vocabulary Building Games: Games to learn idioms