Printable Idioms Worksheets
Printable idioms worksheets for 3rd through 5th grade, with an answer key on every sheet. The sets below cover 2 different skills, so you can start where your child actually is. Available as matching, sorting activities, and fill in the blank.
Targeted Practice by Skill
About Idioms
What this skill is
Idioms are fixed figurative expressions whose combined meaning cannot be understood from the literal definitions of their individual words (such as 'spill the beans' meaning to reveal a secret). Solvers study origin stories, context sentence clues, and figurative illustrations. Learning idioms builds reading comprehension, cultural literacy, and figurative language interpretation skills across upper elementary grades, literature units, content reading, and reading passages.
When children learn it
Common idioms (piece of cake, raining cats and dogs) are introduced in 3rd grade. Detailed idiom origin stories, context passage decoding, and figurative writing integration are emphasized in 4th grade and 5th grade language arts, literature circles, narrative writing, speech presentation, and reading units.
Common Mistakes
- Interpreting idioms literally, thinking 'spill the beans' means accidentally dropping a can of baked beans on the floor.
- Changing fixed idiom wordings, writing 'spill the peas' or 'break an arm' instead of standard fixed phrases.
- Misinterpreting context clues, guessing an opposite meaning when an idiom is used in a passage.