[little sage]

What's this? A quiet activity for reviewing prepositions of place.

For whom? Anyone who enjoys drawing. Large or small classes. Especially nice for young beginners.

Target language: in/on/under/by/next to/behind/in front of/over/ above/below, etc.

Method:

1) Preteach prepostions.
2) Write a sentence on the board. For example: The fish is in the cup.
3) Draw a picture to illustrate the sentence.
4) Erase the nouns leaving the sentence frame on the board.
"The _________ is in/on/under... the _____________."
5) Practice filling in the gaps orally, encouraging students to be creative. "The lion is under the bookbag."
6) Distribute small paper squares to every student.
7) Have students write one sentence per paper, fold the papers, put the papers into a communal cup at the front of class. ** Naturally, check these for comprehensibility
8) Distribute larger papers to all students for drawing.
9) Call one student to the front of the class.
10) Student pulls out one sentence and reads it aloud.
11) All other students draw a picture to illustrate the sentence.

A game element can be added by giving points to the first student to complete the drawing correctly, perhaps setting a time limit. Or by dividing the class into teams and sending one student per team to the front of the class to draw. But drawing is fun in itself and doesn't need to be competitive.


Variations on a theme:

After steps 1-5, above, list 5-7 nouns on the board and have students draw all of them in a scene arranged the way they like.

For example: table chair bowl kite panda candy frog could lead to a drawing of a panda on the table with a frog under a chair sitting on a kite, etc.

After students have finished their drawings, have one student "read" their drawing to a partner, or to the rest of the class, without allowing the other kids to see their picture: "The panda is on the table. The candy is under the chair. The bowl is on the chair. The frog is in the bowl."

When all students are finished, have them compare their drawings for accuracy.

Enjoy!

[Eric]

little sage,

nice esl game!

thanks for adding it to the site!

eric

[mesmark]

I've done a similar game.

1. Group students into teams. (min. 2 people but not more than 4)
2. One student from each team is choosen as the drawer for round one
3. I write out and show the drawers a sentence at the front of the class. (A monkey is in the cup.)
4. Drawers race back and draw the picture of a monkey in a cup without speaking or gesturing. The team member can go to the teacher and check the answer once they think they've go it.

That's a little roudy and you can award students or not. they enjoy the game and usually are just happy to play it.

(This can also be done with toys hidden inside a box and have the students look at the scene instead of reading the sentence off of a piece of paper.)

A quiet game: Draw a Park
1. give everyone a piece of paper and start them out with "There is a small pond in the center of the park."
2. Students go around and add to the park. Anything is OK! Try to get them to be as discriptive as possible.
(Don't let them look at others' drawings)
3. In the end compare parks with a few people and see how others perceived the information. Are things in the right place? Did everyone draw the same kind of bench? same kind of flowers, trees, etc.? Were there kids on the swings? How many swings did you draw?

If you have time to play again, students will really try to be clear and descriptive the second or third time around. They want to be understood!

- Mark

[little sage]

I like your variations, sounds fun.

[i2i]

This works really well with this worksheet:


You can make this using the worksheet wizard.http://www.eslhq.com/worksheets/