Imperative verbs KS2 – 6 of the best worksheets and resources for Primary English/SPaG

Sit down! Shut up! Listen to me!

These are just three examples of imperative verbs.

But, as teachers, you already know that. You’re probably using them all day every day as you give instructions to students.

Hopefully you’ll be using imperative verbs that are slightly less severe in tone than these.

What is an imperative verb?

Obviously a verb is often described as a ‘doing word’, well an imperative verb is one that is telling someone to ‘do’ something. So, they are used in instructions and orders, warnings, advice or requests.

You also get negative imperative verbs when telling/asking/advising someone not to do something.

Imperative verbs examples

• Please take your seats.
• Complete your work then put it on my desk.
• Stop!
• Try it!
• Catch!
• Get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow.
• Gently put your models on the side to dry.

Negative imperative verb examples

• Don’t touch that!
• You shouldn’t go in there.
• Emily will not be coming to basketball training.

1 | Writing instructions for a sports game

With this year 2 writing assessment resource pack pupils will write instructions for a game played in their PE lessons; which means they’ll be using lots of imperative verbs.

For example: ‘The two other players have to throw the ball accurately to each other without the piggy getting it.’

Get this resource here.

2 | How to write command sentences

For a nice introduction on writing command sentences (which, of course, contain imperative verbs) this BBC Bitesize article has a short explanatory video, tips and examples and a quick quiz to help embed learning at the end.

Check it out here.

3 | Bossy Bats imperative verbs resources

A fun action game for children to play when learning about bossy or imperative verbs, Bossy Bats helps with the understanding of how, when and why imperative verbs are used by getting them to follow simple instructions or commands.

Game play instructions are also included, all you need is a dice and counters.

You can get a free month’s membership and download up to 5 resources a week, and there are more Bossy Bats ones to supplement the game too.

Find them all here.

4 | Imperative (Bossy) verbs comic strip activity

This activity asks children to create an instructional comic strip, giving examples such as ‘How to travel sensibly’ or ‘How to have fun on holiday’.

But on top of that, there’s also a Mr Men-themed PowerPoint and a PDF imperative verbs grammar quiz that you can download.

Find it all here.

5 | Sandwich making instructional writing

In this activity children will leaving some instructions for an alien on how to make a sandwich, so they had better be very clearly written and easy to follow.

The worksheet provides a list of connectives children might want to use, as well as some imperative verbs like ‘slice’, ‘open’ and ‘mix’.

Download and print here.

6 | Rewrite sentences into the imperative form worksheet

Create some imperative verbs and rewrite the statements with this illustrated PDF activity.

In it, children need to use their comprehension and grammar skills to rewrite sentences like ‘You must stop, thief.’ into the imperative form.

Grab this one here.

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