Most children start learning about prepositions and how to use them in kindergarten. As adults, prepositions are such a common part of language that we don’t realize it is not always easy for young language learners to understand the job of prepositions.
What Do Prepositions Do?
Prepositions describe the relationships between words.
Preposition of place answer questions of where.
The moon is in the sky. Where is the moon? It is in the sky.
Preposition of time answer questions of when and how long.
They played chess after playing checkers. When did they play chess? After playing checkers.
I slept over five hours. How long did you sleep? Over five hours.
How to Help Your Child Learn Prepositions of Place
The best way to help your child learn prepositions and their function is to play with them. Take a hands on approach and begin with prepositions of place. Following are some games to get you started.
Common Prepositions of Place
Picture the Preposition
1. Select 10 prepositions and write each one on a separate index card.
2. Think of 10 different locations and write each one on a separate index card. (Examples: house, store, fence, tree, lake)
3. Have your child name 10 animals and write down each one on a separate index card.
4. Place the cards face down, one stack for each category.
5. The first player draws one card from each stack
6. Player then draws a picture illustrating the relationship between the two words indicated by the preposition.
7. The other players try to guess the guess the picture. (Examples: The dog is in the lake. The cat is between the bushes.)
8. Each player takes a turn drawing a picture.
9. Once all the cards have been drawn, shuffle the individual stacks and keep playing.
10. You can play as many rounds as you like, but you might have to set a limit to keep your child from wanting to play all night – It is fun.
20 Where Questions
1. Think of a location.
2. Ask your child Where am I?
3. Have your child ask you 20 yes or no questions to figure out where you are.
Example Questions:
- Are you on the ground?
- Are you in the air?
- Are you near water?
- Are you inside a building?
- Are you behind something?
- Is there something above you?
4. If your child still hasn’t figured out your location, let him take his best guess before telling him.
5. Now it’s your turn to guess your child’s location.
About Laura Payne
A self-confessed language nerd, Laura Payne is the mother of two boys, and she is a part-time English teacher. She has also done freelance writing about several topics including the structure and grammar of English.
