Beach Prepositions Activities with Sandcastle and Crab | ESL ELL

 This resource (Beach Prepositions Activities with Sandcastle & Crab — Printable ESL Beach Unit Pack)  is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-4075972

This resource gives students a fun and meaningful way to practice prepositions in context to include in your lesson plan. Using a playful sandcastle and a red crab helps young learners visualize spatial relationships. The activities support comprehension, speaking, and sentence-building skills. Help elementary ESL/ELL learners practise spatial prepositions with fun beach-themed worksheets, flashcards, and games — sandcastle & crab included!

Teaching spatial relationships (in/on/under/next to / behind / in front of) can be challenging for young ESL learners — but using the flashcards can be helpful.

Copy Cat Writing and Drawing  Flashcard Activity. Use thin paper to place it over the top of the flash card and copy with markers and crayons. They can also copy out the prepositions.

Show your class any preposition flashcard and ask questions: Where is the crab?

Ask questions to your students, but fold the preposition word on the flash card, like I show here: 

Listen & Draw the Crab Worksheet. Students practice understanding prepositions in context. Then, show the flashcard for them to check.

Write a Sentence. Students draw a picture small card and a preposition card, then say or write a sentence (e.g., The crab is under the sandcastle.).

Roll and color the Prepositions Worksheet. A student rolls the preposition die. Depending on the preposition it lands on (e.g., on, under, next to, in front of, behind, in), they find the matching picture on the worksheet. As a speaking practice: After rolling, students say the sentence aloud (The crab is under the sandcastle.) before coloring.

Fill-in-the-blank worksheet with prepositions. Provide a word bank with prepositions (in, on, under, behind, next to, in front of) using the small cards or flashcrads from the resource.

Color-by-instruction printable worksheets for prepositions beach — very effective for ELLs because it combines reading comprehension, vocabulary, and coloring fun.

A Q&A worksheet helps students practice both forming and answering questions with prepositions. Then do a Pair Work Role-Play, where One student asks: “Where is the red crab?”The partner answers: “It is under the sandcastle.”

Read the sentence on the worksheet and draw + color the crab in the correct place on the sandcastle. It encourages careful reading and understanding of simple preposition sentences.

Sandcastle + Crab Cutouts. Teacher says: “Put the crab under the sandcastle.” Students move the crab cutout to the correct position. It builds listening comprehension and preposition vocabulary.

I also added a printable sentence puzzle set to the resource! Each puzzle piece has part of a sentence with the sandcastle and crab images. Students put the pieces together to form complete sentences, such as “The red crab is next to the sandcastle.” This activity helps learners practice reading, sentence structure, and preposition vocabulary in a hands-on way.

Students move along the path on the beach preposition board game, read the spaces, and practice prepositions in a playful way. It’s a great way to bring all the activities together and give students extra practice in a fun, cooperative format.

 

Check the ready-to-use Beach Unit Flashcards provide colourful, engaging visuals that help kids remember words — while giving you flexible materials for games, matching, speaking, writing and class activities. Perfect for beginners or young learners, these cards help with vocabulary recognition, production, spelling, and interactive use. All included in the full Beach Unit resource. Check the blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/04/beach-unit-flashcards.html

Check out my Pinterest board for printable materials and creative activities!

From flashcards to worksheets, you'll find tons of useful resources to make your lessons fun and interactive.
Visit the board here: https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl/esl-beach-theme/