Material
The same as for the conjunction game (see previous page) and a vase.
Direct aim
To show the function of the preposition, and to give reading practice.
Age of interest
Approximately five years.
Teacher’s presentation
- Write down the flowers linking the three different kinds with ‘and’; then, when the child has given them, you write down ‘the vase’ and the child should give it to you.
- Then write out ‘in’ in a different colour and place the words together to form ‘The red flower and the yellow flower and the blue flower in the vase’.
The position
The child should then put them in the vase.
Exercises
As in presentation. One could use a space station or a garage instead of a farm. Have a box of prepared prepositions; with, under, up, beside, above, opposite, behind, against, next to, etc.
- Take out the box of farm animals and write out phrases for the children to set out, e.g. ‘the hen under the tree’. The child then places the hen under the tree. The whole farm may be set out like this and the child sees that the prepositions are used to show where things are to be moved.
- The same exercise may be done with only two objects with the Directress using different prepositions to get the child to move the two objects in many different ways. The children may use the phrases and a box of prepared prepositions to arrange the farm animals. They may also put out the symbols for them on their own.
If you have a blind child, or a partially-sighted child, the following words of position should be experienced. The child can put himself in the position and also put objects in these positions.
Children with a learning disability such as perceptual sequencing difficulty that makes them a poor speller, often are not very clear over some of these. It is useful to check them: first, last, next, begin, start, finish, left, right, middle, side, top, bottom, above, over, under, underneath, beneath, below, inside, outside, up, down, forward, back, front, before, beside, far, near.