Conditionals

Students are already familiar with the concept of conditionals in their daily lives. Have they ever had a parent say any of the following?

• “If you clean your room, you can go out with your friends.”
• “If your homework is done, you can play video games.”
• “If you do your chores all week, you get your allowance, or else you are grounded.”

These are all conditionals! Conditionals follow the format of IF this, THEN that.

IF (condition is met), THEN (action performed)

Have the students share a few conditionals from their own lives with the class or within small groups.

NOTE: For older students, you can have them add the ELSE portion of a conditional. IF (condition is met), THEN (action performed), ELSE (different action performed)

Examples

IF it is snowing, THEN wear boots, ELSE wear shoes.

The ELSE portion makes sure that some action is performed regardless. Regardless of whether it is snowing or not, you should probably wear something on your feet.

For the “IF it is snowing, THEN wear boots, ELSE wear shoes” conditional, notice that without the ELSE action, your students might end up not wearing any footwear!