Prepositions of Location Lesson Plan

Notes:

The song and worksheets in this lesson are great for active listening exercises!

Lesson Procedure:

Warm Up and Maintenance:

New Learning and Practice:

1. Teach the prepositions vocab
For this you’ll need a box and a small toy animal (I use a koala). Before class, put the koala inside the box. In class, sit your students down and take out the box. Rattle the box and have your students rattle the box and try to guess what is inside. Take out the toy and introduce it to the class. Also elicit the word "box". Sit the toy on the box and ask "Where is it?". Elicit/Teach the preposition "on" and then "It’s on the box". Do the same for the rest of the prepositions (on, under, in, behind, next to, in front of, between).

2. Practice the prepositions
Put students in pairs and give each pair a box and toy - or anything which can be used to practice the prepositions (e.g. a pencil and pencil case). Have each pair ask and answer questions using the prepositions.

Practice the prepositions

3. Play "Where Is / Where Are"
Take out a pen and elicit the word. Have everyone close their eyes. Hide the pen somewhere in the classroom (e.g. inside a book). Tell everyone to open their eyes and ask them "Where is the pen?". Have each student guess using the structure "Is it (under) the (chair)?". When the pen is finally found take out a pair of shoes (can be a dolls pair). Elicit / Teach "They’re shoes" and show the contrast between "It's" and "They're". Again, have your students close their eyes as you hide the shoes. Students try and guess their location by asking questions such as "Are they (behind) the (desk)?".

Now put students in pairs and have each pair hide objects and ask where things are using the prepositions and structures.

4. Play the "Where are my Things?" song with listening worksheet
Give everyone a worksheet (Worksheet 1 for "Where are my Things?" song). Elicit the items on the worksheet. Tell the students to listen to the song and draw the pen and shoes in the correct location on the worksheet. Play the song twice to give everyone a good chance of getting the answer right.

If everyone enjoyed the song you can play it again and sing along. Put the song poster on the board to use as you all sing along.

Lyrics for "Where are my Things?"

It’s time to go to school but where are my things?

Verse 1:
Where are my things? Where are my things?
Where are my things? Where can they be?

Where is my pen? Where is my pen?

Is it on the table?
No!
Is it under the desk?
No!
Is it in the drawer?
No!
Where is it?
It’s behind the curtains!

Verse 2:
Where are my things? Where are my things?
Where are my things? Where can they be?

Where are my shoes? Where are my shoes?

Are they next to the TV?
No!
Are they in front of the door?
No!
Are they between the sofa and the chair?
No!
Where are they?
They’re on your feet!

(download MP3 here)

Gestures for "Where are my Things?"

There are no specific gestures for this song. The song can be used with our worksheet for listening practice – students listen to the song and draw the answers on the worksheet (see point 5).

We also have a video that you can stream in class to sing along with (Internet connection required):

5. Do the Prepositions Listening worksheet
Give everyone a worksheet (Worksheet 2 for "Where are my Things?" song). This time the teacher is going to make sentences and the students have to listen and draw the objects in the right places.

6. Read classroom reader "Silly Willy Goes Shopping"
This classroom readers follows the same objectives of this lesson and gives some fun practice of using prepositions of location - it's a funny interactive story. Before class, download and print off the reader "Silly Willy Goes Shopping". As you go through each page, point to the pictures and elicit each room of the house and the different objects in each room. Then get everyone to try and guess where the character is going to put the different objects (using prepositions), for example:

Teacher: Where is Silly Willy? (pointing at the picture on page 3)
Students: In the kitchen!
Teacher: Yes, that's right! And what is this (and this and this)?
Students: A washing machine, an oven and a fridge.
Teacher: Right! Good job! And what is Silly Willy holding?
Students: Cheese!
Teacher: Yes, cheese! (reading from the story) ... "Where do you think he will put the cheese?".
Students: In the fridge!
Teacher: Ok, Let's check ... (turns to page 4 - reading) ... "In the washing machine! Silly, Silly Willy!"

Read classroom reader "Silly Willy Goes Shopping" Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. the different objects) and try to get everyone predicting where the objects will be put.

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and read through the story one more time (without stopping for questions, etc.) as students complete the sentences. Then go through the answers as a class.

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Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required):

7. Play "Prepositions Pictionary"
For smaller classes you can play this on the board – larger classes can use paper to play in groups. Start by modeling the activity. Bring a student up to the class. Say "Draw a cat on a car". The student has to draw the picture. Then get the student who drew the picture to say a new sentence and another student to draw the picture. Keep playing so that everyone has a chance to draw and say a sentence.

Play "Prepositions Pictionary"