The Prepositional House

This lesson will provide students with an opportunity and a framework in which they will be
able to identify, understand, and apply their knowledge about prepositions and prepositional
phrases.
Subject(s): English Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 4
Intended Audience: Educators
Instructional Time: 1 Hour(s)
Resource supports reading in content area:Yes
Freely Available: Yes
Keywords: prepositions, prepositional phrases, object of the preposition
Instructional Component Type(s): Lesson Plan, Worksheet, Assessment, Formative Assessment
Resource Collection: CPALMS Lesson Plan Development Initiative

ATTACHMENTS
CommonlyUsedPrepositions.docx
PrepositionHouse.pdf

LESSON CONTENT
 Lesson Plan Template:

General Lesson Plan

 Learning Objectives: What should students know and be able to do as a result of this
lesson?

1. Students will be able to recall newly learned prepositions.

2. Students will be able to understand the function of a preposition and a prepositional phrase.
3. Students will be able to identify the preposition and the object of the preposition in a prepositional phrase.
4. Students will be able to compose sentences to include prepositional phrases.
5. Students will draft a paragraph in which they describe a particular personal experience in order to
demonstrate their understanding and mastery of the prepositional phrase.
 Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?

1. Since this may be the first time students will learn about prepositions and prepositional phrases, students
should be familiar with the other parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives in order to
understand both the components and function of a prepositional phrase.
2. Students should be adept at writing complete sentences and composing clear and cohesive paragraphs.
 Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?
 1. Have any of you ever heard of the word preposition or the phrase, prepositional phrase? What do either of
those terms mean?
2. How might the Preposition House.pdf be able to "house" prepositions?
3. Now that you are familiar with some prepositions, can you think of a sentence in which a preposition and a
prepositional phrase are included?
4. As you compose your narrative paragraph, what are some prepositions or prepositional phrases you might
include in your writing?
 Teaching Phase: How will the teacher present the concept or skill to students?

1. The teacher will ask the students if they have ever heard of a preposition or a prepositional phrase. If there
are students who have heard of a preposition or prepositional phrase, the teacher can list students' responses
on a white board or chart paper.

2. Next, the teacher would want to introduce the definition of a preposition and a prepositional phrase. It
would be prudent at this point to inform students that there are two (2) parts to a prepositional phrase - the
preposition and the object of a preposition. Perhaps the teacher could let students know that one cannot
exist without the other. There are a variety of versions of definitions but essentially, a preposition, a
prepositional phrase and the object of a preposition can be defined as below.

 A preposition is a part of speech, a word that introduces/begins a prepositional phrase.

 A prepositional phrase includes the preposition and the object of the preposition.
 The "object" of the preposition will always be either a noun or a pronoun and come at the end of
the prepositional phrase.

3. The teacher should now introduce a list of prepositions and review these words with the class. (See
attached Commonly Used Prepositions)

4. Next, in order to generate an organic piece of text that will naturally include some prepositional phrases,
the teacher can ask for student volunteers to share with the class their routine about waking up and coming
to school that particular day. For example, the teacher could pose the question, "Would anyone like to share
with the class, step-by-step, how they woke up this morning, got dressed, ate breakfast, and then came to
school." At this point, the teacher can write down verbatim what a student's or students' responses are. An
example of a student response my look like the following:

"This morning I woke up and got out of my bed. Then, I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and
washed my face. I then went into the kitchen and ate breakfast. After that, I walked down the street to my
bus stop and waited for the bus to pick me up. Once I got to school, I went to my classroom and the bell
rang.
A response such as this includes multiple prepositional phrases. This particular exercise is intended to
illuminate to students that in their everyday spoken language, they naturally incorporate prepositional
phrases.

5. At this point the teacher will say,"Now that we have written our paragraph, let us look for prepositions and
prepositional phrases." As a class, underline the prepositional phrases, circling the prepositions and circling
the objects of the prepositions.
 6. (OPTIONAL) At this point a teacher may want to show students that sometimes words we think are
prepositions are really not. To avoid confusing a preposition with another part of speech in a sentence,
move the words that would be the prepositional phrase to the beginning of the sentence. If the words make
sense with the rest of the sentence when placed at the beginning of the sentence it is a prepositional
phrase.Ifthephrasenoes not make sense, it is not a prepositional phrase. The teacher can use these two
examples:

We ran up the hill. (prepositional phrase or not?) Up the hill we ran. (Yes)
We ran up the bill at the store. (prepositional phrase or nor?) Up the bill, we ran at the store. (No)

7. Next, the teacher should pass out individual copies of the Preposition House.pdf and inform students that
this will be a tool for them to remember and recall a variety of prepositions. However, the teacher will want
to inform students that there are other prepositions that may not make sense relevant to the "Preposition
House", but that the drawing is simply a tool to remember many commonly used prepositions. The teacher
could then begin the process of brainstorming with students and having students write on their handout
appropriate prepositions that are relevant to direction and applicable to the "Preposition House". For
example the following prepositions could be easily written at various locations in and around the house.
(near the mailbox, above the roof, next to the door, etc.)

Possible prepositions to use: about, above, across, against, along, around, before, behind, below, beneath,
beside, between, beyond, by, down, from, in, inside, into, near, on, out, outside, over, past, through, to,
under, and up.

8. Next, the teacher should then ask students whether they are able to identify the object of the preposition,
meaning can they identify what the noun or pronoun is at the end of each prepositional phrase. If the
teacher underlines the prepositional phrases for students to see, students should quickly be able to identify
the various objects of the prepositions. In the example provided, the objects of the prepositions are: bed,
bathroom, kitchen, that, street, stop, bus, school, and classroom.

9. Once students have learned the function of a prepositional phrase and that there are two parts of a
prepositional phrase (the preposition and the object of a preposition) students can then move on to the
Guided Practice portion of the lesson.
 Guided Practice: What activities or exercises will the students complete with teacher
guidance?

1. Students will need to be able to identify prepositional phrases in a provided text.

2. Teacher will partner students.
3. In order to allow for teacher choice and flexibility with this part of the lesson, many examples of grade
level texts can be found here on pages 63-76. This document, which outlines Florida Standards, also
provides a number of excerpts from a variety of grade level texts (stories, poetry, and informational texts).
4. The teacher will want to find a short text and pre-identify the prepositional phrases in the selected text.
5. Working with a partner, students will underline or highlight prepositional phrases, circle prepositions in red
and circle the object of the prepositions in blue. During this exercise, students should have their own list
of Commonly Used Prepositions.docx with them so that they can use this as a resource to identify
prepositional phrases.
6. The teacher will monitor students working in pairs to determine their levels of understanding.
 Independent Practice: What activities or exercises will students complete to reinforce
the concepts and skills developed in the lesson?
 Students will draft a paragraph in which they describe a personal experience. Students will be asked to underline the
prepositional phrases in their paragraph and circle the preposition in red and the object of the preposition in blue.
Students must include 10 prepositional phrases in their writing and each prepositional phrase will be worth 3 points.
(one point for underlining the prepositional phrase, 1 point for circling the preposition and 1 point for circling the
object of the preposition.)

 Closure: How will the teacher assist students in organizing the knowledge gained in
the lesson?

As a closing activity, the teacher could ask for student volunteers to read their paragraphs aloud and see whether
students are able to identify the prepositional phrases. Additionally, students could write on an exit card, a sentence
that includes a prepositional phrase in which both the preposition and the object of the preposition are identified.

 Summative Assessment

Students will draft a paragraph in which they describe a personal experience. Students will be asked to underline the
prepositional phrases in their paragraph and circle the preposition in red and the object of the preposition in blue.
Students must include 10 prepositional phrases in their writing and each prepositional phrase will be worth 3 points.
(one point for underlining the prepositional phrase, 1 point for circling the preposition and 1 point for circling the
object of the preposition.)

 Formative Assessment

1. The teacher will ask students what they know about prepositions or prepositional phrases.
2. When completing the Preposition House.pdf, the teacher can probe students by asking them are there any
other prepositions they can think of that would be applicable to include in the "Preposition House".
3. When reading the teacher selected text, the teacher will ask students to identify prepositional phrases, in
addition to identifying prepositions and the objects of the preposition.
4. During the Guided Practice, the teacher will monitor the students underlining the prepositional phrases and
circling the objects of the preposition to determine student understanding of the concept.
 Feedback to Students

The teacher will provide feedback to students when they are identifying prepositional phrases, prepositions, and
objects of the preposition when reviewing the student generated narrative, when completing the Preposition
House.pdf, and when identifying all three elements while reading a teacher selected text. Students will also receive
additional feedback when drafting their narrative paragraphs about an experience they have had or are looking
forward to in the future.
Comments for feedback to students could include the following:
 1. Yes, that is a great example of a preposition/prepositional phrase/object of the preposition.
2. Thank you for sharing with the class how you got up this morning and got ready to come to school.
3. I see you have included a variety of prepositions in your "Preposition House. Good job!"
4. As you can see, all of you use prepositions and prepositional phrases every day in what you say, and even
sometimes, in what you are writing.

ACCOMMODATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS



Accommodations:

1. Students with special needs could be given the accommodation of having a partially completed Preposition
House.pdf or partner students with multiple skill levels and abilities.
2. Instead of having students draft a paragraph about an experience, perhaps students could write just a few
sentences to include prepositional phrases.
3. Colored highlighters and the usage of bold face type, highlighting prepositions and the objects of
prepositions in a student generated text may also assist students with special needs.
4. Students could verbally communicate their experience to the teacher or another student to compose a
written text of their narration.
5. The student could also verbally identify the prepositional phrase, the preposition, and the object of the
preposition.


Extensions:

1. The teacher could compile a collection of selected narratives that students have provided and then give this
collection of various texts to students as an additional assessment to determine their further understanding
of the function of a prepositional phrase.
2. Additional teacher or student selected texts could be provided to students to identify prepositional phrases.


Special Materials Needed:

o Commonly Used Prepositions.docx

o Preposition House.pdf
o Teacher selected text that includes various prepositional phrases. This website includes multiple grade level
texts.