Try this fun positional words activity with your preschool or kindergarten students!
It’s the final week of the K-2 Math Activities series with Playdough to Plato and This Reading Mama! This week our theme is Geometry.
When I thought about creating a geometry game for kindergarten, I decided to focus on positional words rather than shapes. Here’s a list of positional words that kids should understand:
- above
- over
- between
- under
- below
- next to
- close to
- far from
- near
- beside
- in
- out
- left
- right
I chose to combine this mathematical understanding with literacy – and created a set of three printable, interactive books.
If your young child is a fluent reader (as mine is), he can read each page and glue the animal where it belongs. On this page, “The butterfly is between the bees.”
If your child isn’t reading on his own yet, have him cut out the pictures and glue them in the appropriate places as you read the pages. On this page: “The butterfly is beside the tree.”
This was a quick, fun activity for my Five.
You get three free books in the download!
Other ways to teach positional words:
- Use toys. “Can you put the lego man under the cup? Put him behind the cup. Now put him on top of the cup.”
- Get active! “Jump over the rope. Stand behind the rope. Run around the rope. Sit in front of the rope.”
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Free Math Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade
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Rajinie Dixit
I would like to share this resource with a parent, but just one reader at a time. They are limited English speaking, so I think it would be too much to try to get them to your website to download themselves. Does that break the copyright?
Kate Dowling
Hi Rajinie!
This is Kate, Anna’s assistant. Please check your email for a response from Anna. 🙂
Nawal
Thank you ?????very much .
Vee
Thank you so much for your printables. I especially love that the sorting and position words activities can be done with real objects then with the cut-and-paste. As a special education teacher I need to teach the concepts but often need a permanent artifact to show mastery also. That makes your work especially valuable!
-Vee
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Vee! I’m glad you like this!
nancy habib
My ESL students love your printable books on countries of the world. Please consider a student book on Korea and Jordan.
Your efforts and creativity are appreciated. Many thanks.
Sincerely,
Nancy
Anna Geiger
I’m so glad your students are enjoying these, Nancy! Unfortunately, I am limited as to which countries I can do based on the clip art that I can find to purchase. Currently there are no sets for Korea or Jordan. 🙁
Maria
the download link doesn’t work;( too bad I thought it was a cute way for kids to understand this concept
Anna Geiger
It works perfectly for me, Maria. It opened up in about 3 seconds. Did you click the button that says “Is the file not downloading or not printing correctly? Click HERE before commenting or emailing.” 99% of the time, one of those tips works.
Linda Bagzis
Thanks a million for making these positional word readers with pictures for the children to place in the correct location! It is so very helpful to have the little pictures printed along with the readers, instead of trying to find a stamp with each picture. I have found it necessary to teach and then continue to practice position words with my four year old class.
Lara
Hello! Amazing, as usual! I always look forward to your printables. I’m an Italian mom of 2, pregnant with number 3, based in Canada, I homeschool them and would like to ask you something: would you be interested in creating printables for an Italian course for kids on your blog? I used to teach Italian and have my own material, but they are not as aesthetically appealing as yours. I am convinced that teaching kids (and especially, teaching kids a language) can be done in a fun, engaging way through games and activities, such as the roll the die-type of activities you prepare, as well as memory games, sorting, and so on. We could have a lesson per week (something easy, for young children) that teaches the very basics (and complete with instructions for the parents). I could provide you with the content and you could turn create a printable of a game or activity to go along with it. I can also link to YouTube songs or videos for children studying Italian for the topic of the week.
This is just a suggestion, I don’t know if it could work for you or if you would even consider it. If you are interested and have a better idea of how we could cooperate to make it work, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thank you!
Lara
Anna Geiger
Thank you so much for offering this, Lara! I’ve actually had a few people reach out to me about offering printables in different languages. I know my readers would love it, but for time reasons it isn’t something I’m able to do right now. With my six kiddos I find it challenging just to keep up with English printables. 🙂