Language Arts, Writing, Grammar

Grade 5- 8

Objective

Students will learn about prepositions and practice using them.

Directions

Introduction
Prepositions are words we use to show the relationship of a noun or a pronoun to another word in the sentence. They can be called place words because they often tell us the positions of things.
Examples:
The puppy is on the chair.
The girl is beside the chair.
The bone is under the chair.
The prepositions on, beside, and under all refer to the noun chair. They tell us the relationship between it and the puppy, the girl, and the bone.

Problem prepositions
among/between-Something is shared among several people or things (three or more). Something is shared between two people or things.
Examples:
I divided the cake among the whole class.
I divided the cake between Mary and me.
in/into-In shows position in one place. Into shows movement from one place to another.
Examples:
The teacher is in the room.
The boy dived into the river.
different from-One thing or person is different from another. Never say different than.
beside/besides-Beside means at the side of. Besides means in addition to.
Examples:
The teacher stood beside the table.
Several girls were there besides Margaret.

Preposition or adverb?
Some prepositions may look like adverbs. To tell whether the word is a preposition or an adverb, look at the way it is used. Look at the following sentences.
I fell down. Down is an adverb of place. It tells where I fell.
I walked down the road. Down is a preposition governing road.
Remember also that a preposition has a noun or pronoun after it.
Teaching Strategies
Question time
Ask children to describe the positions of some objects in the classroom. Tell children they must reply using a preposition in a sentence.
Where is the clock?
The clock is under the picture.
Where is the television?
The television is beside the table.
Preposition opposites
Have children provide the opposites of given prepositions.
The snake crawled over the rock.
The snake crawled under the rock.
Jumbled prepositions
Give children exercises in which the prepositions are jumbled. Have children identify the preposition or write it correctly.
The bird flew (voer) the tree.
The bird flew over the tree.
Word Bank Prepositions

Resources

• copies of the student activity pages (see the link below)