Preposition. Preposition Starting with an A

Total Time Required: 2 Class Periods, 45 minutes each)
Materials Needed:
- Student laptops
- Document camera (1 per pair)
- Legos
- Powerpoint software

Introduction (5 mins) - To begin the class, the teacher will review what a preposition is: a word that shows spatial relationship between two things. To help fifth graders remember this definition, we say "Anything a plane can do to a cloud." A plane can fly UNDER a cloud, OVER a cloud, THROUGH a cloud, and so on. Then, we will review our prepositions chant. (See Shurley Method Chants Prepositions)

Development (15 mins) - Once students have reviewed prepositions, the teacher will ask two students to come to the front of the class. The teacher will call out a prepositional phrase and the students will act out that phrase (i.e. Johnny is standing BEHIND Carson). Once the students have acted a few out, the teacher will then have the students pair up and practice this activity for 2 minutes. Once students are familiar with prepositions, the teacher will introduce the day's project. The teacher will grab two Lego figures and position one beside the other. The teacher will then write the sentence on the board "Lego Man 1 is standing BESIDE Lego Man 2. The teacher will then explain the project to the students (see Independent below.)

Independent (45 mins) - Student pairs will choose two Lego figures. They will then write a set of twenty sentences including prepositional phrases to describe one or two Lego figures' position in relation to another object (i.e. Lego Man 1 is standing ON TOP of Lego Man 2. OR Both Lego Men are standing INSIDE the pencil box.) Once students have written all twenty sentences, they must highlight the prepositional phrase, and circle the preposition in each sentence. Once students have completed this task, they are ready for the technology portion.

Students will position their objects to match each sentence they wrote, and then take a picture of the figures with the document camera. They'll do this for each of the twenty sentences they wrote. Once they have their twenty pictures, they will upload them onto a Powerpoint file. The students will place one picture onto each Powerpoint slide. Then, they will type the sentence that matches each picture on the corresponding slide, circling and underlining the preposition and prepositional phrase, respectively. Once all required information is on their Powerpoint slides, they may add PIZZAZ! This means, they can add color, transitions, change fonts, etc.

Adaptations: Gifted students will create a stop-motion movie instead. Students requiring remediation will create 10 slides instead of 20.

Closure (20 mins) - Once students complete their projects, they will share with the class. After sharing the projects, students will upload the slideshows to our class website. Once all projects are shared and uploaded, students will close with the Prepositions Chant once more.