Tag Archives: Idiom & metaphor

Modigliani portraits

Posted on 01/08/2015 by languageisheartosay

Here are my examples from lesson 6. Good vocabulary possibilities: Yesterday the page was divided down the middle. Today the background space is divided by lines drawn down and then across. The rectangles are fairly random. A coloured line is … Continue reading →

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Oil pastel and paint people

Posted on 31/07/2015 by languageisheartosay

Here are my examples from lesson 5. I didn’t have enough black paper to make the expected size and I made them much too small so could not add the suggested extra decorations. I also had to use Cray-Pas as … Continue reading →

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Nature faces

Posted on 31/07/2015 by languageisheartosay

Here are my faces made from a few things I picked up in the garden or saw on my table. It was fun to see how spacing the eyes differently changed the face a lot. Vocabulary about the faces: naming … Continue reading →

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Leaf printing

Posted on 29/07/2015 by languageisheartosay

  Here are my tags decorated with leaf prints in lesson 3. I made some prints into birds and others into bugs as suggested. Good vocabulary possibilities: Birds: talk again about how we know they are birds – refer back … Continue reading →

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Night sky

Posted on 29/07/2015 by languageisheartosay

Here are my night sky pictures from lesson 2. Good vocabulary possibilities: Adjectives: you may have a copy of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark which is often read in school. It contains many ‘wow words’ which are … Continue reading →

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To bad-mouth: verb

Posted on 15/01/2015 by languageisheartosay

Okay – so we’ve got used to this new verb. But it still sounds like slang. But ‘to empty podium’??? On BBC Radio 4 too. Poor Mr. Cameron – they threaten to empty podium him and carry on with debates … Continue reading →

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Woolgathering in the windmills of my mind

Posted on 18/11/2012 by languageisheartosay

Today I looked out and it was a wonderful autumn day: blue cloudless sky, no wind and I went to Wisley. On my way there, I heard several updates about wars and rumours of wars on the car radio but … Continue reading →

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Choose your martyrdom

Posted on 30/04/2012 by languageisheartosay

Would you rather be pressed like St. Margaret Clitherow or hanged like St. Anne Line? How does your school inform small children of their fate? Will the Head tell a 6 year old he is going to be put in … Continue reading →

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A real there there

Posted on 19/01/2012 by languageisheartosay

My grammar check immediately spots I have repeated a word, but never mind! As soon as I heard this wonderful new noun (a ‘there-there’), I found it captivating. How much more immediate than solace or consolation. Other recent activity has … Continue reading →

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I smell a rat…

Posted on 03/12/2011 by languageisheartosay

I see it floating in the air; I’ll nip it in the bud! From English Language lessons many years ago this Mixed Metaphor sprang to mind when I heard another lovely example on the radio recently: ‘We’ve opened the Pandora’s … Continue reading →

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A Marmite relationship

Posted on 23/06/2011 by languageisheartosay

Watch one of the men in charge of a display of birds of prey! He strides around the ring, talking non-stop in an informative but colloquial style about the birds, while his colleague gets the birds to fly. As the … Continue reading →

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The cobbler’s children go unshod!

Posted on 06/05/2011 by languageisheartosay

Don’t you love earwigging? Not in an unpleasant way – just overhearing because you can’t help it.

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Are you listening to me?

Posted on 20/09/2010 by languageisheartosay

This is normally said in exasperation when a child has not jumped into action at the first time of telling.  It is often swiftly followed by I won’t tell you again… which may mean either I will tell you again … Continue reading →

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