Tuesday 14 June 2011

Imperatives!!






So this one is a bit of a simple idea, but to teach imperatives I suggest using a childrens play carpet (the ones with the different roads and places on them which are meant for toy cars) and a some toy cars. If you don't have these then you can always get the students to make them from paper or even using whiteboard markers/ chalk to draw on the floor/ ground.
Pre-teach the imperative vocabulary such as:

Stop! Turn left, turn right, open the door, close the door, put your seatbelt on, close the window, go straight ahead.... etc and any others you wish to teach.

These can be pre-taught by doing the action yourself the first time and then asking the students to do them after this. It can even be turned into a game, where the teachers points to the imperative and the students have to mime it, if they do it wrong or are too slow then they sit down.

Students then make signs from plastic straws, paper and sticky tape or blutak, by writing the imperatives on the paper (in bright colours and bold letters) and sticking it to the straws. Students should make one set of signs per group (maybe 4 students in each group depending on the class size).

Assuming that students have been pre-taught the vocabulary for the different places on the carpet, such as school, hospital, zoo, church, swimming pool, town hall, etc, then in groups students compete to direct a team member to a destination set by the teacher or another student using the signs. The student "driving" the car should not know the destination before they get there.

It worked a treat with the carpet and on the student drawn maps which I used in another lesson.