Prepositions Intro — In, On, Under, Behind, Before, After

Mouse-and-box demo: teacher places a toy mouse IN, ON, UNDER, BEHIND, BESIDE, BETWEEN the box. Children call out the preposition for each placement.

• Affirm exact preposition
• Catch 'inside' vs. 'in' as fine-grained alternatives
• Bridge to phrases not just single words

Today we meet PREPOSITIONS. A preposition is a small word that begins a PHRASE telling us WHERE (location) or WHEN (time). Location: in the box, on the chair, under the bed, behind the door, beside the pond, between the trees. Time: before lunch, after recess, during math, until Friday. The preposition ALONE isn't the phrase — you need the noun phrase after it too: 'in the box' is the phrase. Try this in your opinion paragraph 2: your example sentence can hold a prep phrase. 'I helped Mateo find a book on the shark shelf' has the prep phrase 'on the shark shelf' telling WHERE.

• Each phrase tells the reader something different — one tells where, the other tells when.

  model PREP PHRASE 1: 'under the maple tree' (location). PREP PHRASE 2: 'at recess' (time). Notice this sentence has TWO prep phrases — that's fine.

  prompt Identify the prep phrase: 'I sat under the maple tree at recess.'
• Add a phrase that fits your example.

  model Options: 'I ate the sandwich on the bench / in the cafeteria / before science / after gym.' Pick ONE.

  prompt Add a prep phrase to: 'I ate the sandwich.'

• Is 'under' a phrase or just a preposition?
• Add a time prep phrase to 'I helped Mateo.'

M-2-S-GR-10-A Chart

Reproduction of MG-5 at 11x17: top half shows 8 mini-illustrations of a cartoon mouse interacting with a single brown box — 'in the box' (inside, peeking out), 'on the box' (on top), 'under the box' (peeking from below), 'behind the box' (just an ear visible), 'beside the box' (next to it), 'between the boxes' (squeezed between two), 'above the box' (hovering), 'below the box' (in a hole beneath). Each scene labeled with the preposition phrase. Bottom half shows a clock+calendar with 4 time-prep phrases: 'before lunch' (clock arrow before 12), 'after recess' (clock arrow after 10:30), 'during math' (clock highlighting 9-10), 'until Friday' (calendar Mon-Fri with arrow). Print-ready, dyslexic-friendly font.

MG-5 Chart Physical / non-image

Prepositions of location and time anchor chart: top half — LOCATION prepositions illustrated with a small mouse-and-box scene (in the box, on the box, under the box, behind the box, beside the box, between the boxes, above the box, below the box); bottom half — TIME prepositions illustrated with a clock and calendar (before lunch, after recess, during math, until Friday). Print-ready 11x17.

• With the mouse-and-box, demonstrate 6 prep phrases physically. Partner narrates with the full phrase.

  scaffold MG-5 anchor visible; preposition word cards on table
• Open your paragraph-1 draft. Add ONE prep phrase to your example sentence. Annotate as ADD DETAIL — prep phrase.

• Add a prep phrase to: 'I read my book.' Pick WHERE or WHEN.

• Read your prep-phrase sentence aloud.
• Predict: tomorrow we draft paragraph 2 with prep phrases.

• Find one prep phrase in a book at home. Write the phrase and label LOCATION or TIME.