How to Teach Positional Terms to Kindergarten

Video Transcript

"When teaching young children positional or directional terms, it's best to use some form of a model that they can use for hands on experience. For example, when I were to teach positional terms to my class, I would take some kind of a doll, for instance, our Arthur doll, and I would tell them "Arthur is on top of the desk." You then want to do give a couple of the kiddos a chance to place Arthur on top of the desk. You'll then move to Arthur is below the desk. You can do Arthur is in the desk, and out of the desk. You can do that Arthur is to the right or to the left of the desk. You're also able to use Arthur as close to the desk or far from the desk. This gives kiddos a chance to actually play with the directional words that they're learning. After you've taught them, and they've mastered them, it would be a great idea for you to put the words in print. Take an index card and write: on top, below, right, left, inside, outside, near or far. You can then create a bulletin board. Draw an ima...draw a desk or a table that can be in the middle of your bulletin board, and place your directional words where they would belong, on top, obviously on top of the desk, below, underneath it, so forth and so on. A great way to make this bulletin board interactive is to place some kind of a Velcro item or an item with a push pin under adult supervision so that the children can move the item to be where they would like it to go, either on top, below, left, right, or even inside if you wanted to cut a slit in the paper desk where thee item can be slid. Allow them to practice frequently to master the skill."