The Fun Way That Prepositions Are Taught in A Montessori Classroom + FREE Printables

We've got a ton of free printables and activities on the website here: https://themontessoriroom.com/pages/free-montessori-printables

BUT I know most families are too busy to be printing, setting up, and doing all the activities we send.

That's why it's good to read through the activity emails and then simply incorporate the ideas and lessons into every day life.

This week, Katie (creator of our Montessori At-Home Program) created these fantastic early math and language activities designed to teach prepositions and positional language - above, below, around, between, etc.

Learning about prepositions helps children to develop:

• spatial awareness
• language comprehension

The Fun Way That Prepositions Are Taught in A Montessori Classroom...

Children learn prepositions in a Montessori Casa Classroom with a farm. It usually includes a barn or farmhouse, people, animals, fences and other farm-themed objects.

Children use the farm to act out and create sentences, placing animals and objects in different positions to explore prepositions and other parts of speech through hands-on language work.  

For example: The teacher places the cow beside the barn and says, “The cow is beside the barn” or the teacher invites the child to “Put the chicken inside the barn.” 

So as you can see, it’s easy to introduce positional language into your child’s play.

All you have to do is talk about what you’re doing, making an effort to include positional words like in, on, under, over, beside, behind, in front of, around, etc., once in a while. 

You can make it fun, it doesn’t need to feel like a lesson!

Here are three simple ideas that incorporate positional words and concepts at home:

1. Simon Says - play a version of Simon Says that invites children to explore positional words, like “Put your hands on your head,” “Sit under the table,” or “Stand beside the couch.”
   
   
2. Obstacle Course - set up a simple indoor or outdoor obstacle course with prompts: crawl under the table, jump over the pillow, walk around the chair, sit on the mat.

Note: The playground is a fun place for the first 2 activities and no setup required!

3. Reading and Observing - when reading, take your time and draw attention to parts of the illustrations that show positional concepts, like a character hiding behind a tree or sitting on a bench. 
   
   When you’re out and about, describe what your child is seeing with positional words, like that child is sitting inside the sandbox or the apples are beside the bananas.

If you want, you can also use the printables below:

Printable Activity #1: Language Cards

Recommended Age: 3 years and up

Go through the cards with the child and talk about what you see.

As a fun extension, act out the cards with a real apple, inviting your child to put it in different positions around the house.

You could also forgo the cards if you don’t feel like printing them and just play a game like this instead. Use toys, stuffed animals or anything that will pique your child’s interest.

Extension: Cut off the word at the bottom of the page on pages 3 and 4 and match it to the image. Use page 1 and 2 as the control.

Click here to download the PDF.

Printable Activity #2: Preposition Sorting

Recommended Age: 3 years and up

Sort image cards by 16 different prepositions.

Click here to download the PDF.