Classroom Prepositions Flashcards

Classroom prepositions flashcards game

Instructions for teachers

This game can be played with any picture flashcards and/ or word flashcards – the ones given here are simply the vocabulary I was revising with my class the last time I did this activity, with a class of eight-year-olds. Between ten and fifteen cards is usually about right for one round of the game.

The flashcards are put around the room face down, either by the teacher (perhaps to the students’ instructions) or by students (perhaps to the teacher’s instructions or with each student explaining where they want to put a card first to add more speaking). To make sure that students know the differences between the different prepositions, it’s best to have more than one flashcard near the same classroom object, e.g. one flashcard under the CD player, one next to the CD player and one in the CD player, or one flashcard on the door, one behind the door, and one under the door. 

The teacher or a student then asks questions about which flashcards are in particular place (“What is under the door?” “It’s a dog”/ “The dog is under the door”, etc) and/ or where particular flashcards are (“Where is the dog?” “It’s under the door”, etc) for the class to answer. The first student to answer correctly (or the student whose turn it is if you are taking turns) gets a point and/ or that flashcard. To add some movement, you can also ask students to point at (but not touch) the card that they are answering the question about.

I tend to do one or two rounds of this game with picture flashcards and then do the next round with word flashcards. I usually put the first set of flashcards around the room before the students come in, to save time and to get them intrigued when they come into the classroom and notice the cards. When that first set of flashcards have been cleared, I drill the next set of flashcards and let the first student to shout out the right word correctly put that flashcard somewhere the class or tell me where to put it.

The table and cards with suggested positions in the classroom can be used to give students ideas of where they want to put the cards, or to give them reading practice when they say where they want to cards to be put or identify where the cards are. If you have one set of cards or table per group, students can also race put the cards in the right order or copy a sentence from the table to explain where the flashcard that the teacher just shouted out is. Note that you will need to change the objects and articles (“a”, “an” and “the”) to match the room where the students will be.

 

Cards for Wow 1

robot

teacher

student

girl

rabbit

fish

bird

 

 

 

listen

be quiet

open

take out

touch

close

look

 

 

fat

thin

big

small/ little

happy

sad

young

pretty

ugly

handsome

 

 

 

Cards for Wow 3

apple

banana

bed

bicycle

bird

cake

camera

car

cat

dog

doll

egg

eye

fish

fork

French fry

hamburger

hat

horse

key

kite

lemon

melon

motorbike

mouse

orange

pear

pig

pineapple

pizza

plate

rabbit

skirt

snake

spoon

strawberry

telephone

television

watermelon

 

Suggested positions in the classroom phrases

It is

in on under next to/ by near in front of behind

a CD a bag a basket a board pen a book a box a desk a pen a pencil a pencil case a poster a ruler a shelf an eraser the CD player the calendar the carpet the door the light switch the map the whiteboard the window

 

Positions in the classroom cards

It’s

 

in	on	under
by/ next to	in front of	behind

 

 

 

 

a CD	a bag
a basket	a board pen
a book	a box
a desk	a pen
a pencil	a pencil case
a poster	a ruler
a shelf	an eraser
the CD player	the calendar
the carpet	the door
the switch	the map
the board	the window
a pocket