Preposition for kindergarten

A Helpful Guide, Plus Fun Activities

If you’re like most parents, then you’re probably very busy with an endless to-do list. This can make it challenging to help your child with prepositions for kids.

Before you start worrying about your child’s language and vocabulary development, fear not! We are here to help.

Our HOMER experts know a thing or two about helping children understand the parts of speech, and today, we’ll be focusing on prepositions. To be specific, we’ve compiled a detailed guide for you.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

What Are Prepositions?

Prepositions as the linking words in a sentence that help express relationships between other words in that sentence.

Under and inside are prepositions we commonly use in the English language to describe where something is. Besides indicating position, prepositions also help describe when something is happening (before and after, for instance).

In a sentence, prepositions are meant to be followed by a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase (e.g., the door, an apple, etc.) that acts as an object. For instance: “Put the apple on… ” is not a full idea because the preposition “on” needs an object after it (“Put the apple on the table.”).

We’ve mentioned that most prepositions express time and location. So, let’s have a closer look at that.

Prepositions For Time

Some of the most common prepositions for time are at, on, by, and after.

For example:

Our class will start at 4 pm.
We are going to the park on Friday.
I’ll be home by midday.
We’ll drive home after the game.

Prepositions For Location

A few prepositions you might regularly use to indicate location are under, on, in, and above.

For example:

Place your book under the table.
The dog is sitting on a chair.
Your crayons are in your bag.
The plane flies above the clouds.

Sometimes, it can be challenging for children to grasp the concept of prepositions entirely, but with practice and some of the below tips, your child will soon get there!

Before you can incorporate our tips for helping your child with prepositions for kids, they must be at the right age to start learning this concept.

When Do Children Learn About Prepositions?

Babies pick up a lot of their language from their parents, siblings, and caretakers. By 24 months, toddlers commonly use the prepositions “on” and “in.”

In early grades, prepositions are formally introduced. Typically, this would be after third or fourth grade. This is because, unlike verbs or nouns, prepositions are not as easy to understand.

From one of the examples above, we described how “on” can have different meanings. There are also the prepositions “to,” “for,” and “of,” which have various functions in sentences. All of this can be challenging for our young learners.

During toddlerhood and early childhood, teaching prepositions for kids is about exposure more than anything. One of the best ways to help children understand prepositions is by encouraging them to carry out instructions that have prepositions in them.

For example, you might say, “Please put this book on the table.” Simple instructions like this are often effective in helping familiarize children with prepositions.

Importance Of Prepositions For Kids

Why are prepositions so important for kids to understand? Why put so much time and effort into helping your child grasp these simple words? Let’s take a look.

Better Communication

One of the biggest benefits of helping your kid know prepositions is that it will help them communicate better.

As already explained, prepositions can be tricky to understand. While these words may be few and pretty short, using them correctly can make a big difference in communication.

Helping your child with prepositions from a young age can enable them to grasp the concept early, practice them often, and know how to use them correctly as they begin constructing sentences.

Improved Ability To Follow Directions

When your child understands prepositions, it will be easier for them to carry out instructions independently. For example, “Please place your crayons in the box” will not be mistaken for “Please place your crayons behind the box.”

Whether it’s in, on, behind, against, or beneath, your child will be clear on what they need to do and confidently do so.

How To Teach Prepositions For Kids

1) Read About It

Sometimes the best place to start with teaching children prepositions (or anything else) is through books. If your child is like most kids, then they already love listening to you read stories to them, so this is an easy one!

There are tons of books online that you can read to help introduce your child to prepositions and how they work. The following are a few great books for kids aged 2-6 years old:

Where’s Spot?
Rosie’s Walk
Up, Down, and Around
The Berenstain Bears Inside Outside Upside Down
Hide-and-Seek: A First Book of Position Words

2) Choose The Missing Word

Once your child has a basic understanding of prepositions, it’s time to test their knowledge (but in a fun and easy way!).

Start by writing a simple sentence and leaving out the preposition. Read the sentence to them and give them a few options to see which word works best in the blank spot.

For example, you can write down, “I have dance lessons _ Tuesday,” and then give your child three possible options (in, on, under).

It can be great practice to help your child consider each option before deciding on one. Ask them, “Can I have dance lessons in Tuesday?” or “Can I have dance lessons under Tuesday?”

This questioning and taking the time to think about every option can help your child understand why “on” is the correct answer. It can also make the game silly and fun (“We can’t sit under the floor!”)

3) Fix The Strange Sentence

This fun activity works similarly to the previous one, except this time, you’ll write and read a sentence with an incorrect preposition, and then ask them to fix it.

Using the example above (“I have dance lessons in Tuesday”), what sounds funny about this sentence? In this example, your child will need to recognize that “in” is the problem and suggest what word should be used instead.

4) Expand A Sentence

Earlier, we mentioned that prepositions are the linking words that express position, time, and other functions in sentences.

A great way to help your child understand this is by helping them use prepositions with simple sentences.

To get started, you can say an incomplete sentence, and then encourage your child to complete it. For example, you can begin with, “There is some juice…” Your child will then complete this with “…in the fridge. ”

If they are still new to prepositions, kids will probably make a few mistakes. That’s OK! This is the perfect opportunity to help them learn and grow their vocabulary!

5) Musical Chairs With A Twist

Everyone enjoys playing musical chairs, so we thought it would be a great way to help kids learn about prepositions — with a bit of a twist, of course! All you need for this activity is some fun music, a chair, and an energetic child.

To begin, play the music and allow your child to walk clockwise around the chair (just like the traditional musical chairs).

The major difference is when you stop the music suddenly, your child will need to act out what you say. For example, sit behind the chair, under it, beside it, etc. You can even add to the fun with other instructions, like tapping on the chair or waving to the chair.

6) Sing-Along

You’ve probably heard your child singing along to their favorite songs before (they might even request them on the drive home).

If your child loves singing, why not use this to help them understand prepositions? All you need is a catchy tune (think of a song your child will already be familiar with, like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”) and some instructions to go along with the song.

With a silly song, simple sentences, like, “Sit on the couch,” “Sit behind the couch,” etc., become much more fun and exciting for your child to engage with while learning.

7) Place The Toy…

Sometimes the best way to help your child understand prepositions is by physically placing a toy in different places.

To help your child get excited about this activity, use their favorite teddy bear or toy and then give them instructions on where to place it. For example, you might say, “Place your toy on/under/behind the bed.”

We love this game because it focuses on the movement of one object and may make it easier for children to grasp what the words on, under, and behind actually mean.

Even better, you can turn this into a fun game by seeing how quickly your child can move their toy around to different spots in the house!

Fun With Prepositions For Kids

From our list above, we hope you’re clear on one thing: There are many ways to introduce prepositions for kids while making sure that they see them in a fun and engaging way.

Whether you choose to use some or all of the above-mentioned tips, remember to exercise patience with your child as they try to wrap their heads around prepositions and the rules that come with them.

With plenty of exposure during your daily life, you’ll soon find your child mastering these often complicated concepts.

Check out HOMER’s Learn & Grow app for more on how to help children thrive through their early years!

Author

Prepositions for Kids

by Craig Shrives

This Page Includes. ..

Video
Printable & Sendable Test

What Are Prepositions? (for Kids)

Prepositions are linking words. There are over 100 different prepositions. Here are three common ones:

Let's Use Some Prepositions!

Let's start this lesson by using some prepositions. Select the best preposition to fill the gap.

Notice that these prepositions tell us where things are.

The mouse is under the chair.
My apple is on the plate.
He is behind bars.

As well as telling us where things are, prepositions can also tell us when things are. Let's do some examples.

Select the best preposition to fill the gap.

Meet me in the morning.
Clean your room before dinner.
The train will leave at 4 o'clock.

Anna was in Germany in October.

Prepositions Are Linking Words

The word "preposition" means "placed before."

A preposition is placed before a word to show the relationship with a nearby word. So, a preposition links one word to another.

Click on a Preposition

The mouse is above the box.

The preposition "above" is placed before "the box" to show the relationship between "the box" and "the mouse."

Examples of Prepositions

Prepositions are extremely common because we need them to show how words relate to each other. For example:

John is near the cow.
I saw your key by the lamp.

Here are 30 common prepositions:

about, above, after, against, as, at, before, behind, below, beside, between, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, of, off, on, over, through, to, under, until, up, with

Here is a list of 130 prepositions.

More about Prepositions

Here is the most important point about prepositions:

A preposition shows the relationship between the word it is positioned before and another nearby word.

As you learn more about prepositions, you will soon notice that not all prepositions tell us where or when things are. Prepositions can tell us other things too, like ownership and how. For example:

We found the fingerprints of the robber.
Tina sang with passion.

Video Lesson

Here is a video lesson on prepositions:

Printable Test

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"Prepositions: IN, FROM, ON, UNDER, TO, FROM" | Outline of a speech therapy lesson (preparatory group) on the topic:

SUMMARY OF THE FRONTAL LOGOPEDIC LESSON

“Prepositions: IN, FROM, ON, UNDER, K, FROM”

Speech therapist teacher MKDOU

“Kindergarten No. 6 g Beslan

Kumalagova S.R.

Purpose:

Clarify children's understanding of prepositions: "on", "under", "in", "from", "to", "from"

Tasks:

cases; nine0020
Strengthen children's ability to make sentences according to the diagram and picture;
To consolidate the skill of making sentences with a given word;
Develop general and fine motor skills;
Develop attention, memory, thinking;
Develop optical-spatial skills.

Equipment: cards with schemes of prepositions by the number of children, plot pictures

Course of the lesson

I. Organizational moment

Hide-and-seek game

The speech therapist hides toys in advance in different corners of the room. nine0003

L: I was told that uninvited guests settled in our group. The tracker who was watching them writes that someone hid in the top drawer of the table. Who will go looking? Got it, George? Who is hiding there? Who is hiding under the closet? Under the doll's bed? On the table? etc. Here they are - uninvited guests. What little words helped us find them?

J: V, NA, POD

L: And if the pathfinder's sentences didn't contain those little words, would we find guests?

D: No.

L: Guys, these are important words!

II. Main part

1. L: Let's remember what other little words we haven't mentioned! Look at the board (on the preposition chart board)

Children name prepositions

L: Children, now let's remember what each small word means

R1: If the object is on top of something, we say the small word "ON ".

R2: When an item is underneath another item, we use the little word "under". nine0003

R3: when an object is inside something, we say "at"

R4: We say the word OT when the object is moving away from something.

R5: When an object moves towards something, we say the word "to"

R6: when an object comes out of something, we say "from"

2. "Hang up the picture"

L: Well done! Here are the sketches of our little words. Let's make a sentence for each picture and put it under the correct diagram

Each child takes their picture, writes a sentence, underlines the preposition and sticks the picture on the board

3. L: And now we'll see how you learned to speak

small words correctly.

Exercise "Listen and show"

Children are given cards with schemes of prepositions.

L: I say a sentence and you show the outline of the little word you hear.

Lena went to kindergarten. Children show the scheme of the preposition "B"

Mom took the candy out of the box.

Lesha came up to the house. Etc

4. L: And now let's turn into little words ourselves - helpers! Each of

will close their eyes, and when they open them, they will already be transformed!

Children close their eyes, the speech therapist hangs a rope around their necks with a preposition scheme attached to it.

L: So you have become! Now each of you must find out what word - an assistant he became, explain what this word means and come up with a sentence with it.

Children do the task

III. Fizminutka

IV. Didactic exercise "Insert a preposition"

L: A strong wind blew and all the little words from the sentences flew away. Let's put them in.

Snow lay ... on the roof.

Mom put the cookies in... the box.

Masha took out a sweater ... from the closet

The car drove up ... to the house, etc.

Children name the whole sentence with a preposition.

V. Summary of the lesson

Evaluation of children's work. The speech therapist invites the children to list all the tasks that they performed, to tell what they were interested in doing in class. nine0003 90,000 prepositions in the speech of children with OHP

L. Oskolkova, speech therapist

MADOU TsRR-D/s No. 50 g. Tyumen

9000

An important indicator use prepositions. Therefore, in the formation of the grammatical structure of children's speech, work on the study and consolidation of prepositions plays an important role.

A preposition in grammar is a function word expressing relationships between words (phrases and word form) .

Prepositions can be arranged into the following groups:

1. Prepositions (in, on, under, behind, around) - according to the location of objects or objects in space.

2. Prepositions (by, from, around, to, to, from) - the direction of the action of objects or objects.

3. Prepositions (by, between, with, in front of, in front of, behind) - the relative position of objects relative to each other.

4. Preposition (y) - the presence of any property of an object or object. nine0003

5. Prepositions (for, about, about) - the direction of action on an object or object.

6. Compound prepositions (because of, from under).

However, in children with general underdevelopment of speech, numerous agrammatisms (mistakes) are often observed when using prepositions. Therefore, purposeful, systematic work is needed to overcome these mistakes in children and , both on the part of teachers and parents.

First of all, it is important to help the child learn the semantic meaning of each preposition (the so-called "small word" , since only under this condition will he be able to use them correctly in his speech.

It is necessary to gradually explain to the child what the prepositions mean:

ON - this means on the surface of something (on the table)

B - this means inside something (on the table)

UNDER - below - below something (under the table)

ABOVE - above something, as if in the air (above the table)

NEAR - next to something (with a table)

FOR - as if hidden behind something (behind the table)

BEFORE - in front of something (in front of the table)

The meaning of each preposition is explained separately, and the explanation must be accompanied by a visual and repeated display on specific subjects. For example, having explained to the child the meaning of the preposition ON , the adult says: “Look, I put the book ON the table, and now I put it ON the cabinet (performs the appropriate actions) .

The same is done with the preposition В (every action is "voiced" ). When explaining the meanings of prepositions, you can use visualization - diagrams.

After explaining to the child the symbols available in the scheme, it can be used in exercises. The adult shows the child a picture and names what is shown on them, and the child must show the diagram that corresponds to the meaning of the preposition used by the adult. At the same time, the child sees that the location of the circle in relation to the square is fully consistent with the location of real objects. Examples "narration" pictures:

* A seagull flies over the water.

* The squirrel sits in a hollow.

* A bird sits on a branch.

* The ball is under the book.

* Children play near the house.

To find out how the child learned the meanings of prepositions, he is asked to silently follow the instructions: put the book on the table, in the bedside table, in the closet, on the windowsill, on the table, etc. The unmistakable execution of these instructions will indicate that the child has learned meanings of prepositions. Only after that you can proceed to the exercises in the correct use of prepositions by the child himself. nine0003

One of the areas of corrective work on the formation of lexical and grammatical categories in children with general speech underdevelopment is teaching the understanding and correct use of prepositions. The limitations of verbal communication, the lag in the development of cognitive activity do not allow children to master prepositional constructions on their own. It is necessary to help children learn the rules for changing and combining words, to teach them to accurately convey the semantic intention using language means.

Prepositions in the child's speech appear later than all significant parts of speech. A characteristic regularity of the normal development of children's speech is the fact that the assimilation of prepositions is carried out only after the most functional elements of the language - inflections (endings) are mastered.

In children with OHP, the same sequence in the assimilation of speech is observed as in normally developing peers, but over a longer period of time. Therefore, speech therapy work on the formation of the correct use of prepositions in children with OHP is based on the sequence in the assimilation of prepositions in the norm. nine0003

In speech therapy classes on the formation of the correct use of prepositions in speech in children, we learn to understand the spatial relations of two objects, expressed by the prepositions on, in, at, under, about, etc. , the most common in everyday practice and the simplest in terms of meaning. Classes are held in subgroups, alternating with the teacher's classes in the form of didactic games, game exercises, entertaining tasks. To draw the attention of children to sounding speech, toys, fairy-tale characters, objects well known to children are used. It is necessary to teach children to listen carefully to the instructions, to correctly perform the required action. For example, the Adult puts the die on the table and says, "The die is on the table." Preposition to is voiced. Children do the same. Then each child is asked where he put the cube. If the child cannot answer himself, then the speech therapist does this for him. First, children are taught to use a preposition in phrases, then in phrases, without achieving a clear pronunciation of words. After getting acquainted with several prepositions, work is carried out to differentiate them. For example, they ask the child to show where the pencil is in the box, and where is on the box; where the ball lies on chair, and where is under chair.

The skills of correct understanding and use of prepositions are fixed by educators in individual classes held in the afternoon, as well as in the process of all regime moments. Parents can also be of great help. During consultations, they can be recommended to play with their children at home in such games as “Who hid where?”, “What is on the tree, and what (who) is under the tree?”, “Cat's house” and others.

Children of senior preschool age (2-3 levels of speech underdevelopment) get acquainted with prepositions on the material of phrases and simple phrases. You need to start learning with the simplest prepositions on, under, indicating the scene and easily modeled in the process of visual demonstration. The children's understanding of the spatial arrangement of objects expressed by these prepositions is clarified. For example, clearly highlighting the preposition to with your voice, the speech therapist asks you to follow the following instructions:

- Put the cup on the table, and the car on the chair.

- Place book on table, ball on floor, and doll on bed. nine0003

When tasks with the small word to will run without errors, the rule can be explained:

The small word on appears when the item is on top.

After explaining the rule, the adult, followed by the children, pronounce word combinations with the preposition to , highlighting the preposition with their voice. Then they make suggestions. In the classroom, not only objects in the group (toys, furniture, dishes) are used, but also picture material. Relying on the visual analyzer always gives a positive effect, therefore, in addition to plot and subject pictures, preposition schemes can be used. nine0003

After mastering the preposition on, , the spatial arrangement of objects expressed by the preposition under is specified. Children learn to isolate the preposition under in a sentence and compose phrases and sentences with this preposition according to a visual situation, according to plot pictures, and two subject pictures. After mastering the grammatical constructions with the prepositions to and to , work is carried out to distinguish them. An adult gives children a "truncated task":

- Put the ball ... a chair, and the fungus ... a table, - and asks: - Is it clear how to perform the actions? I missed small but very important words. Now, listen again: Put the ball under the chair and the fungus on the table. Do you need to do the same or different steps? What is the difference?

It is necessary to teach children to differentiate tasks, to listen to the verbal instruction, to keep its sequence in memory. Gradually, the tasks become more difficult: in the series of “small words”, it is necessary to highlight, for example, the words under and under . Hearing them in a row: on, from, in, under, about, between, over, the child should clap his hands.

You can offer children a task to understand the generalized meaning of the prepositions on and under : the book is on the table. Where else could the book be? The ball fell under table. Where else can he go? Children are taught to add missing prepositions to a sentence. When learning to use prepositions with different cases, children get acquainted with new meanings of prepositions.