Colloquial Imperatives

Want to help your children find, identify and remember where imperative verbs are used in instructional writing? 

Try making the imperatives a little less formal!

We've chucked :-) a couple of examples in our Dropbox folder here.

#Taskmaster - Obscure [Noun] Miming Task

Yeah! Taskmaster strikes again.

So, here's how the task went:

- contestant was handed an envelope. In that, it said to write down as many obscure animals as possible;

- once the list was written, they were handed another envelope. This envelope disclosed that they needed to mime the animals for their team-mate to guess.

- result, amusing TV!

The clip below shows one of the attempts and comes with a language warning:

So, how could this be used in the classroom?

- Name obscure adjectives, adverbs and so on...
- Name features of a topic, eg rivers, space, Egyptians
- Name cities in the UK
- It's endless...

But, you can't do it too often. It relies on the person writing the list not knowing the next bit is coming.

 Image Credit: UKTV

Taskmaster used this as part of a comedy program. We're certainly not looking to mock or ridicule children. The skills here are: deep thinking to make the 'obscure' list, quick thinking when the task develops, ability to communicate without words and the ability to interpret - and, this person must also have the knowledge to know what's being described! 

Give it a go.

Sporting Number Bonds

Last month, I was at a football match. The team I support were winning, for a change. As a result, I was clock watching for most of the second half. As time went on, I realised that my Number Bonds to 90 are pretty good.

Too often in school, we focus on Number Bonds to 10 and to 100. This is all good and well, but it's not enough. The children need to know their Number Bonds WITHIN 100. This then aids their addition and subtraction greatly. They need to know all 288 X and ÷ facts, and in the same way, they need to know these sum/difference facts within 100. For example, 5 and what make 13? 15 add 7 is? 23 added to 19? 44 subtract 17?

Here's an idea. 

Like I was, use the scenario of a sporting event to help:
Football: Number Bonds to 45/90
Basketball: Four 12 minute quarters
Cricket: Number Bonds to 6 (overs), 40/45/50 (game length)
Netball: 60 minutes, divided into 15 minute quarters
Ice Hockey: 60 minutes, divided into 20 minute thirds
Rugby Union: Number bonds to 40/80 

Click here for an example resource.