Teaching Prepositions

"Mom, what is a preposition?"

That question started the day's language arts lesson...because curious minds are ripe for learning!

A preposition is a word that connects or shows the relationship between two nouns or a noun and pronoun. Prepositions are always with an object or person.

We reviewed nouns and pronouns. I gave examples of each and used them in a sentence.

We chose two nouns for our preposition play, mice and cars.

Paper mice were made from 3x5 cards, each child coloring a mouse family. I found some Duplo cars from our collection of blocks.

Once all the mice were colored and decorated, tails in place, our preposition discovery began.

I explained that for our play we would act out sentences, stating the relationship between the mice and the cars. I demonstrated by placing the mice on the cars while stating,"the mice are on the cars".  I wrote "on" on a 3x5 card and placed it near the cars.

One by one I asked each of the child to place their mice in some relation to the cars and then state the position in relation to one another.

The mice are under the cars.

The mice are on the cars.

The mice are aside of the cars.

The mice are behind the cars.

As the children placed the mice and verbally expressed their position, I wrote the preposition on a card. Before long we had a handful of preposition cards. By the end of a few hours, we used our creative thinking, working on spatial relationships, applied artistic uniqueness, and KNEW what prepositions are and how to use them in sentences.

We also had a handful of spelling cards to use for other lessons.

aboard	about	above	across	after
against	along	amid	at	before
behind	below	beneath	between	by
concerning	down	except	following	for
from	in	inside	into	like
near	of	off	on	onto
over	past	round	since	through
toward	under	underneath	until	up
upon	with	within	without

Learning started with a question. 

"Mom, what is a preposition?"