Hello there,
A good one for practising the prepositions (not introducing them)
Yes how about a game in pairs or groups. Student A hides an object in the classroom. Student B asks: "is it in your desk?" is it in your bag? is it under your book? is it on your desk, is it next to your book?
Swap over when the object is found.
A good idea for introducing the prepositions and working with them "live": Using a group of students do a demo first up front. Give them a preposition to demonstrate with their bodies, working together. Let them use their imaginations. For example "under" could be one student lying down while the others make a bridge over him or her by getting down on all fours - legs on one side of the student on the floor, hands on the other. They could do it in a more boring way by just holding their arms over the student if your floor is dirty or you are paranoid about dirt.
I should post on these forums more often as I just had that idea right now and I will add it to my book!
Another idea I use is a story where my dog runs all over the house chasing a cat. The cat goes under the bed, up the stairs, down the stairs and so on. The dog does various things like go back downstairs and check the cat bowl for cat biscuits, and so on. All fascinating if you are into pets! If you are not into pets, chances are many of your pupils will be. Aside from in South Korea where I think they eat them don't they?
So I give the kids a background of a house and two little miniature pics of a cat and a dog. They then move the cat and dog around physically while I tell the story (or better get a good student to tell the story). Tell the story again, this time for a variant the kids act out the prepositions whenever they hear them. Under can be holding up a book over your head - any action that conjures up the meaning of the preposition is fine.
Here are lesson plan ideas on
teaching ESL prepositions with games.
All the best
Shelley