Prepositions "Blindfolded"

Last week we studied prepositions with a couple of hands-on activities:

Pencil & Paper
I had students hold a piece of paper in one hand and a pencil in the other and then read cue cards with prepositions on them. Some examples include: behind, beneath, on, over, through, and near. I had students manipulate the pencil to represent the appropriate location in relationship with their piece of paper. "Through" was their favorite, as they got to put their pencil through one of the three holes, or make a fourth by stabbing their paper (this was what most of the students did).

Draw it!
Another activity involved students working with a partner to describe an image that their partner had to draw to the best of their ability. The speaker used prepositions to describe the shapes in the image, as well as other descriptive words related to size and location (half the page, right top corner, pointing left, etc.). Students paired up and turned their chairs so one student had their back directly to the screen. This made it easier to resist the temptation to peek!

Here is the image the first partner was describing:

Here are some pictures of students' attempts to draw what was being described: 

After about 4 minutes I called time and counted to three. The students flipped their clipboards and laughed at the outcomes. As you can see, the location (left and right) was a challenge a majority of students faced. Students answered the question, "What you would do next time to be more successful?" and then we switched partners. The original drawer was now looking at the screen waiting to see the second image. Here is that image:

It is similar to the first, with the same shapes, but they have different relationships with each other. I didn't take pictures of the second drawing round, but the results were similar with sizing and location being off. Students shared that they learned how important it was to be specific with describing locations of the different shapes. We practiced using the language, "The orange pentagon is behind the green oval and inside the black rectangle" and "The gray cloud is in front of the purple heart."

My students loved this activity and (hopefully) they learned about the importance of using specific language when describing something to someone else!