Prepositions

Read Rosie's Walk [by Pat Hutchins] to your students. I know, I know it is a primary book, but it is chalkful of prepositions.

Then I have my students write their own Rosie's Walk book.

My example this year was Kitty's Walk

Kitty, the cat, went for a walk
through the kitty door
across the deck
under the bird bath
over the fence
around the house
and down the road just in time to catch a mouse.

My kids came up with such creative books like Spongebob's Walk, Superman's Fly, etc.

Our ESL pull-out teacher did everything with a stuffed mouse and a digital camera. One of her activities was "A preposition is anywhere a mouse can go". She would take pictures of a mouse below the desk, when she printed the picture, she would type the sentence: "The mouse is below the desk." You could do the same thing with spacial relations. Allow each student to bring a favorite stuffed animal, and practice placing them in different locations. Try taking pictures and creating a class book.

I taught 6th grade last year... We did a Pictionary-type game for prepositions. I had cards with different prepositions words on each one. I started as the "illustrator" by choosing a card without anyone seeing it. Then, I illustrated the preposition on the board.

For example, if the preposition was "under" I could draw a table with an object under it. I would be able to use only hand gestures to elicit answers from the students. This could also be a quick way to "teach" the concept of prepositions showing place or location.

List the words on the board as they are identified by students....

As the kids recognized the prepositions and the purpose for them, I would have them state the prepositional phrase (i.e. "under the table").

They would then write sentences with the phrases.... then paragraphs....

Pictures from magazines can also be used by the students to identify and create sentences with prepositions.

"Prepostion Pictionary" was also played by my students taking turns at the board and pulling a preposition card. If the kids aren't too crazy, you could have them "act out" the preposition ;)
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Also, I've had my students go on grammar hunts with magazines, books, and newspapers to find prepositions, verb phrases direct and indirect objects, punctuation, etc. Making it a race game with a timer works well with the 6th graders.

Have fun!
LindaR

I have 2 great ways to teach prepositions. The first one is to have the children color and cut out a cowboy and a cactus. Tell them that this cowboy likes to jump. They should then come up with numerous ways in which he can jump. For example, he can jump WITH the cactus, AROUND the cactus, IN the cactus, OVER the cactus, etc. Make a list of these on the board. Tell them that these words are prepositions. Then teach them a song to the tune of Yankey Doodle. It goes like this: Until by into after from - across against with toward on - around among along of to - beside beyond below at through.

Hope this helps!!

I got to teach prepositions when I student taught too. One thing my cooperating teacher had showed me was to draw a face on the board. Then a fly and talk about all the places the fly could go - in the ear, out the mouth, on the head, above the nose, between the eyes, etc.

My cooperating teacher thought it was important that the students memorize the list of prepositions. So we formed the "Preppy Club". Students had an "official" id card that listed the preps. on it and their name. When they showed that they had memorized the list, they got a "pennant" with their name placed on the board. Even the students who were lower ability were excited and did well. We lowered the number that they needed to know.
Good luck!

I have taught it with drawing a bee next to a person's face. You ask the kids, tell me all of the places this bee and go in relation to the man, directions. They will say through the nose, in the ear, above the head...the list goes on and on... that's a simple way and very visual too...

I just had my students complete prepositional poems in small groups. Here is the one I used for an example:

At the Beach

at the beach
amid many sunbathers
on my blanket
with my book
in the beautiful sunshine

is my favorite place to relax!

I had the kids work in groups of 4 or 5. They had to choose a topic and then each had to write a prepositional phrase then pass the paper along to the next student. After I edited these, I gave them chart paper and markers. They had to copy the poem onto the chart paper and illustrate it. They did a beautiful job on these! My favorite was from a BOY who did his own for extra credit:

At the Mall

at the mall
with my mom
near the dressing room
in the ladies clothing department
around the perfume and jewelry

is the WORST place for me to be!!

I cracked up! So did his classmates when he read it. At first they didn't realize the slant he had taken and actually thought . . . What a funny kid he is!

My high school english teacher gave us a quick way to see if a word started a prepositional phrase.

The bird flew ______ the cage.

If the word in question made sense in the sentence, it was probably the starting of a prep. phrase.

ex. The bird flew through the cage.

The bird flew in the cage.
The bird flew at the cage.

etc. etc...

I write prepositions on index cards and pass one out to each student. I give them time to read their word or get a friend to help them read the word. Then they come to the middle of the classroom where I have a chair. The students are told to show the word using the chair and their body. The children get pretty creative and have fun with these words. For example, if the word is "under". The child gets under the chair. The other children will guess their word. This is how I introduce prepositions to my first graders. I will also put the prepositions on our Smart Board. I have the kids write a sentence using one of the prepositions. I also show them the prepositional phrases in their sentences. I put their work on the Smart Board using my document camera and we read each prepositional phrase. We also use a program called Winston Grammar at my school to teach the parts of speech. The kids love it because the parts of speech are written on colored cards. I made a big set of cards that we use for whole group activities. The children love to take a sentence and use the cards to tell the part of speech of each word. If it is not a word that fits one of the cards we have learned they put a solid black card. We do a lot of work with sentences with the large cards and our Smart Board. I also have my students use the cards when they write to help them create longer and more interesting sentences. My students love it and call it a card game. It drives them crazy when they have to use a black card and bug me until I teach them a new part of speech. I am only supposed to teach nouns, articles, verbs, and adjectives, but I also teach prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions. They are like little sponges when learning is fun! I hope this has given you some ideas.

Preposition Preposition Starting With An "A"

Aboard About Above (Fast)
Across After Against (Fast)
Along Among Around AT (Slow)

Preposition Preposition Starting With A "B"

Before Behind Below (Fast)
Beneath Beside Between (Fast)
Beyond But By (Slow)

Preposition Preposition Starting With A "D"

Down During
Down During

Preposition Preposition Don't Go Away, Go To The Middle And See What We Say. E F I and L N O

Except For From (Fast)
In Inside Into (Fast)
Like (SNAP)
Near Of Off (Fast)
On Out Outside Over (Slow)

Preposition Preposition Almost Through. Start With P And End with W.

Past Since Through (Fast)
Throughout To Toward (Fast)
Under Underneath (Fast)
Until Up Upon (Fast)
With Within Without (Slow)

Preposition Preposition Easy As Can Be. We're All finished And Aren't You Pleased? We've Just Recited All 49 Of These!