Submitted by Jim Ziegler, Waukesha, Wisconsin

Idea posted April 7, 2003

I've always been a firm believer that using TPR (Total Physical Response) as a teaching method really helps students remember the lesson. One of my favorite uses of TPR was for teaching prepositions. I used this with college students learning German, and they got a kick out of it: It should work well with K-4 students.

The basic idea is to act out the preposition or, better yet, let the students act it out. You'll need a few props that are common to a classroom, such as chairs, tables, or desks. You can lead the movement.

Some examples:
around: Situate a chair so that there's plenty of room around it. Walk around a chair with students following you in a single line. Have them repeat "around the chair," or, if you insist upon complete sentences, "We walk around the chair," over and over as them march around it.
between: Set up two chairs two feet apart. Lead the students between the two chairs as they repeat "between the chairs."
under: Crawl under the table. If you don't feel like hunching down to do this, have two students form a bridge by holding either end of something (a ruler, a book) over their heads. Then you walk under the ruler, book, etc.
over: Put the stick or book on the ground and step over it.
out: Lead them out of the room (they may need to whisper "out of the room" in order not to be disruptive to other classes.)
in: Lead them back into the room.
up: Look and point up.
down: Look and point down.
on: Turn on the light switch. Students merely pretend to turn on the switch.
off: Turn off the light switch.
along: Walk along the wall.
against: Plaster yourself against the wall, but beware the blackboard, especially if you're wearing dark clothing....
above: Suspend your hand above a desk or table.
below: Hold your hand below a desk or table.

By now, I'm sure you get the idea and can think of examples for other prepositions. After the initial exercise, to review, you can act out the prepositions alone while they explain what you're doing: "You're walking around the chair." Change from one preposition to another suddenly and unexpectedly to keep students on their toes, and vary the order in which you act them out. You may want the whole class to respond sometimes and select individual students at other times.