Beach Prepositions Activities with Sandcastle and Crab | ESL ELL

 This resource 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. Using a playful sandcastle and a red crab helps young learners visualize spatial relationships. The activities support comprehension, speaking, and sentence-building skills.

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.

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 worksheet — 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 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 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 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/

 

Beach Unit printable Book

 This resource is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

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

Print the full-color version of “The Frog is Going to the Beach” as a way to develop grammar and vocabulary in a meaningful way.

The bright and engaging illustrations help students understand the meaning of the text, even if they are still learning to decode or read independently.

Each page uses the structure “The frog is going to...” in a natural and repetitive way. The visual cues make it easier for learners to understand “be going to” for future plans. The same goes for the printable coloring version.

Reading Activity Idea with the Book. Start doing the Echo Reading (Teacher Models, Students Repeat).  Read each page aloud while pointing to the words. Students repeat after you, focusing on pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm.

 Benefit: Builds fluency and helps students internalize the sentence pattern: “The frog is going to build a sandcastle”

Take a look of the whole book assembled.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/05/beach-unit-games.html 

Explore a world of engaging links tailored for young English language learners! Click below to access resources designed to support early language.

https://linktr.ee/HolisticEnglishResources

 I use Creative Fabrica for most of the covers. Here is my affliate link:

https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/free-tropical-beach-summer-digital-paper/ref/2670802/?sharedby=user-3080428

Beach Unit Games

  This resource is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

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

Print the beach-themed board game and play with a twist. Each time they land on an item, they "collect" it in an imaginary beach template that has been assigned to each player.
At the end, they list or draw the things in their beach and describe them: “I have a towel and sunglasses.”

Spelling Activities Matter: Learners internalize the correct spelling of new beach-related words (e.g., bucket, mask) by physically constructing them.

Develop early reading and vocabulary skills with this matching card game. Students will match beach-themed word cards (e.g., sandcastle) with corresponding picture cards to build vocabulary recognition, strengthen spelling awareness, and support reading fluency.

Students will review and reinforce their beach vocabulary by writing words on their own Bingo boards and listening carefully during a picture-word calling game using the cards from the previous activity.

The blank Bingo boards provided are for students to write in 8 beach-themed words. Prepare a master list of the words you want to use. As each word is called, students check their boards. If they have the word, they cover it with a token. The first student to cover all 8 words and call out “BINGO!” wins. You can keep playing any other day, they just save the board that is already prepared.

 Matching Words. Lay out the picture cards on one side of the table and the word cards on the other. Students take turns matching the correct word to each image.

Animals on the Beach – Sentence Building Game. Students will use a variety of animal-on-the-beach picture cards to create complete and meaningful sentences using a variety of word cards (nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and more).

Students will write their sentences on their notebooks and share to the class or a partner. The teacher or peers can help check for grammar and sentence structure.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/05/beach-unit-printable-book.html 

All my interactive games, worksheets, and creative ideas to make learning English exciting! 📌 Follow my Pinterest boards and save time and bring fun learning into your classroom! https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl

Beach Unit Worksheets

 This resource is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

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

The Beach Unit Worksheets give students repeated exposure to key beach words through matching, labeling, reading, and writing activities. This helps solidify understanding and recall.

Students can practice the vocabulary for the unit at their own pace and show what they know independently.

Label the Picture worksheet. Students write beach words, improving written communication.

Another labeling worksheet involving clothes and body parts.

Worksheets can be used for early finishers, extra practice, or small group work, such as this Match the Word to the Picture.

Many worksheets help students apply beach vocabulary in context using present simple or past continuous forms. It is just as completing sentences with the correct “-ing” verb form.

Worksheets provide an easy way for teachers to assess comprehension and track progress over time.

There are things that the beach sports use. Mark them down and write.

Beach Word Search. Students find the letters to form beach vocabulary words.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/04/beach-unit-small-cards.html 

Whether you're teaching vocabulary, grammar, or seasonal lessons, you'll find materials to enrich your classroom.

Visit my store here: Holistic English Resources by Rosa Amelia.

Beach Unit Small Cards

  This resource is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

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

Small cards are a mini version of the flashcards, making them easy to use for individual, pair, or small group activities.

Use the cards as Writing Prompts. Students can pick a card and write affirmative or negative sentences based on the picture, using the speech bubbles provided.

Hands-On Learning: Students can sort cards into different categories: Things you wear / Things you use, Activities / Objects as in my example. Ask the questions: What do you need for each action?

Grammar Practice: Students can use sentence cards in the present and past continuous tense (e.g., "I am playing with the ball" / "She was swimming"). Students will match all the cards in the tense you are teaching. They can write the sentences on their notebooks.

Fast Finishers: Perfect for students who finish early—give them a set of small cards without the words and have them write the word for picture.

Visit my Instagram account, @rosamelia_eslteacher, because it offers a wealth of ideas and inspiration for teaching English to young learners. Find Resources for your classroom activities.