Prepositions; Trains

Prepositions are words that usually precede nouns and pronouns; they express the relationship of nouns/pronouns to another word/element in the sentence (generally in terms of time and space).  There are many prepositions, some of which include:

about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at,
before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, but, by,
despite, down, during, except,
for, from,
in, inside, into,
like,
near,
of, off, on, onto, out, outside, over,
past,
since,
through, throughout, till, to, toward,
under, underneath, until, up, upon,
with, within, and without.

Prepositions (and prepositional phrases) are important for children to learn because they make language more descriptive.  Also, better proficiency with proper grammar leads to stronger writing skills.

When first learning prepositions, it is helpful for children to begin to conceptualize them in terms of space/location.  I suggest visualizing a house, and relating prepositions to a house: "The sky is above the house;" "The pipes are beneath the house;" "The children are inside the house."

To make grammar more concrete, I suggest encouraging your child to create sentences with prepositional phrases at locations with visual interest.  As with the house example, start with prepositions indicating space.  For example, watch trains go by at Station Square.

 

 Image retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/pghbuccos/8282046777/

Have your child describe the trains using prepositional phrases about space.  Targets may include:

"The train is on the tracks," (this preposition describes the relationship of the train to the tacks in terms of space); cue your child by asking, "What is the train on?" if she has difficulty creating the sentence.

"The engineer is inside the train," (this preposition describes the relationship of the engineer to the train in terms of space); cue your child by asking, "Where is the engineer?"

Next, ask your child to describe the trains using prepositional phrases describing time.  Targets may include:

"The train will come back in one week," (this preposition describes the relationship of the train to one point in time); cue your child by asking, "When do you think the train will come back?"

"The train passed us at 6:00," (this preposition also describes the relationship of the train to one point in time); cues your child by asking, "When did the train pass us?"