Tell them what to do!

In this easy-to-use, online-friendly and printable PDF activity, your students can practice writing imperative phrases in a meaningful way. On the worksheet you’ll find a number of text message one might receive on any ordinary kind of day. It will be your students’ job to respond to these text messages with clear directions! These friends and loved ones need their help, and they will give it to them—imperatively.

You can play this game in any way you’d like, but here’s what we recommend:

Play as a class: Practice writing imperative phrases as a class by selecting a student to respond to one of the text messages in the chat, aloud or on the board. Then, the other students must guess at which text message that student is responding to. The first one correctly earns a point. Now it’s their turn to choose a text message to respond to.

Play individually: Give students a time limit (a few minutes, perhaps) to respond to as many text messages as they can. Put them in pairs and have them present their imperative phrases to their partner, who will then try to figure out which one they are responding to.

Play in pairs: Put students in pairs. Choose one of the text messages at random, or let the pairs choose for themselves. They will then need to write a few text message exchanges starting from the first one. Pairs must make sure each student use at least one imperative phrase in the exchange. Then, have the pairs “perform” their text message conversations to the class.

Speed demon: Play as a class. Students will respond one at a time in turns. Choose a phrase, say it aloud, and the first student must respond with an imperative phrase. They must do it quickly! Then, move on to the next student. Repeat the phrase and let them come up with a response. Do this until an idea is repeated or a student is stumped.

Do you like the idea of the SMS game, but want to help your students master something else?

Mixed Conditionals SMS Game