As mad as a hatter! © www.teachitworld.c om 2013 16410 Page 1 of 4 Teaching notes Level: upper-intermediate (B2). Aims: to practise speaking for fluency to learn some hat-related idioms to browse a shopping website for information and useful language to write an advertisement. Timing: approximately two hours. Activity 4 can be started for homework or done in the following lesson if necessary. Preparation An interactive version of the word-ordering part of activity 2 is available on www.teachitworld.com. You will need internet access in class for this. Cut out the cards on p.2 below. You will either need one set per pair / small group or one set for the whole class, depending how you want to conduct the second part of activity 2. You will need internet access in class for activities 3 and 4. Answers Activity 2 Vocabulary: hat idioms First, students put the words in ord er to make the idioms. For some of the longer idioms (marked * below), you could use the interactive versions (available on www.teachitworld.com). In pairs or small groups, students could then try to guess what th ey mean. Avoid giving answers at this stage. Give each small group an idiom card and its meaning and do the activity described on p.4 below. Alternatively, students could match the idioms cards with the meanings cards (one set per pair / small group). At the drop of a hat = Without any warning, or without being given time to think about it. If you want to get ah ead, get a hat.* = To be succ essful in life, you need a hat. It includes a pun (or play on words) and was used in an advertising campaign to sell hats. Old hat = Something we’ve seen/heard too often and is now boring. Talk through your hat = To talk about something you don’t know much about or to claim something is true when it isn’t. Pass the hat = To ask a group of people to give you money; to have a collection to which you ask everyone to contribute. Pull a rabbit out of a hat = To surprise everyone by doing something very skillful, usually to find an unexpected solution to a problem. Hang up your hat = To stop doing something you have done for a long time (e.g. work) with no intention of starting again. I take my hat off to you.* = A sign that you admire someone. … I’ll eat my hat.* = Said w ith surprise when you find something h ard to believe. Usually used with an ‘if’ clause. If the cap fits, wear it.* = If a criticism of you is true, you should accept it.
