Five Fun Activities for Teaching Prepositions

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Teaching prepositions are one of trickier topics to teach when it comes to teaching grammar. Young children, children on the autism spectrum, and children who don’t integrate language skills easily may be confused by propositions. How do you make learning prepositions easier for children? Use a variety of teaching strategies. Integrate movement into the activities, make the activities fun. Children learn best when they feel engaged.

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Children benefit from repetition and from learning in a variety of different ways. When you present a new concept add in other senses. Use movement, touch, sight, and hearing to teach children. When they experience learning by using a variety of teaching strategies they learn more easily and retain the information better.

We start by combining new concepts with gross motor:

“Follow the Preposition”

Materials: Child, Large Box or Pillowcase

Instructions:

Give each child a large box or pillowcase. Then give directions such as: “Put the box/pillowcase in front of you”, “Jump over the box/pillowcase”, “Put the box between you and the wall”, or “Walk around the box/pillowcase”. If you want to work on pre-reading skills as well, download the preposition flashcards and hold up the preposition flashcard as you say it. There isn’t any real winning or losing with this game. By watching each other the children can get cues for the correct action when they are unsure. This also helps build social referencing skills. Play this game for 5-10 minutes.

“Preposition Musical Chairs”

Materials: Music, Chairs, Children, Prepositional Flashcards

Instructions:

Tell the children that this game has the same rules as musical chairs with one difference. Each round will have a target preposition to focus on such as: on, under or beside. When the music stops they need to demonstrate that preposition by using a chair. For example, the target preposition is “on”. When the music stops they should be on a chair. Leave plenty of space between the chairs so that the children can perform the action the preposition suggests without crashing into each other.

“Prepositional Cut and Paste” Activity

Materials: Prepositional Cut and Paste Worksheet, scissors for kids, glue

Instructions:

Have the kids cut and paste the prepositions graphics according to the directions.

Prepositional Cut and Paste Black and White Version

“Prepositional Sticker” Activity

Materials: Prepositional Sticker Worksheet, stickers

Instructions:

Print out the Prepositional Sticker worksheet. Give the children directions where to put their stickers. Pair the kids up and have them give each other directions.

Sites with preposition worksheets and activities:

Busy Teacher has some fun free printables or you can check out Teaching Ideas has some really cute worksheets that the kids will enjoy.