PREPOSITION  DETECTIVE

   OBJECTIVES: Prepositions                                           TARGET POPULATION: Grades 3 – 7

                             Listening skills                                       MATERIALS: Sentence List (provided)

                                                                                                                Paper & pencil for each student

                                                                                                                Chalkboard & chalk 

             PROCEDURE:  Divide students into teams. Provide each student with a piece of paper and a pencil. Explain that students will be writing down one, and only one, preposition from the sentence that will be read. If teams cannot be divided evenly, it will be necessary to declare someone from each of the "shorted" teams to be the "double respondent". This person can write two prepositions for each sentence, or teammates can take turns being the "double respondent". This ensures that all teams are given an equal number of responses per sentence. Students will be working independently, but scoring points for their teams.

            Read a sentence from the provided list three times so that no one must ask for repetition.  Explain that team points will be kept on the chalk board, and that points will be earned as follows:  If a student writes a word that is actually used as a preposition in the given sentence, and no more than three students from the class have chosen that same preposition, each of the students who has written that preposition scores one point for his team. It is possible that all of the points may go to the same team. 

After reading the sentence three times, all students should be ready with one written preposition.  Begin checking responses by rereading the sentence with a pause after each word.  When the student hears the word that he has written, he must immediately raise his hand or be left out of the count. Tally each point as it is earned.  Be sure to inform students which words are prepositions in the sentence even if some were not selected as responses. Continue by reading the next sentence three times and following the same procedure. The team with the most points at the end of the session is declared the winner.

Sentence List

1. The boy with his dog sat on your porch for two hours.

2. Go to the top of the steps and put this in the basket on the right.

3. Look under the rug in the corner of your bedroom.

4. We will walk down this street and to the church that is on the corner of Elm Street.

5. All of the students from the high school have gone on a field trip to Disneyworld.

6. Around the corner from the library is a wall with one hundred names on it.

7. He ran up the hill, through the trees, across the meadow and down the other side.

8. I hope I sit behind you in math class and beside you during art.

9. The smell of the doughnuts from the bakery traveled out the door and through the town.

10. The picture of the baby fell off the wall and landed on the television.

11. A friend of my mother came to the party with food for everyone.

12. One of the old clocks at our house is on the floor behind the couch.

13. A woman standing near me in line at the grocery store had a sack of potatoes.

14. Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go.

For more ideas see our book GROW: Parts of Speech