➡️ Grammar A1-15: Imperatives
The material that teaches learners of about seven to ten the English their own teacher uses all day — Sit down. Open your book. Don’t run. Let’s tidy up. It starts from the shape of the sentence (the verb first, and nothing at all in front of it — no “you”), then adds the stop word Don’t, the politeness switch please, and Let’s for the “me too” version, with Let’s not for turning an idea down. Practice is spread across four sets: eight easy items on do / don’t, a ten-card right-or-wrong sorter that puts the four commonest bad sentences (You sit down. Not run. Let’s to play. Opens your book.) beside the good ones, six items on where please goes, six real playground and classroom moments that force a choice between an order, a warning and an invitation, plus six errors to repair and a six-item unhinted test. Every answer explains itself in language simpler than the grammar being taught. A dedicated section addresses the biggest worry a child brings from home: a short English instruction is not rude — it is clear, and please is what makes it warm. Teacher notes give a 45-minute sequence, the rub-out-the-you board move, a physical drill for the learner who is stuck, and the follow-up topics.
Lesson Plan
- Three pattern strips: verb first, Don’t + verb, Let’s + verb
- The surprise stated straight away: nothing comes before the verb
- Four tap-to-hear classroom instructions
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- Instruction = the plain verb first: Sit down. Open your book.
- Nothing goes before the verb — never “You sit down.”
- Negative: Don’t + verb — Don’t run. (never “Not run.” or “Doesn’t run.”)
- please at the front or at the end after a comma: Please wait. / Wait, please.
- Let’s + verb for you and me: Let’s go. (never “Let’s to go.”)
- Let’s not + verb to turn an idea down: Let’s not play now.
