Spooky teaches my 8th graders about prepositions, prepositonal phrases, adverb & adjective clauses, and subject-verb agreement in sentences with prepositional phrases

1. Prepositions
We’d be lost without them!

2. Hi, I’m Spooky, Miss
Santerre’s cat. I told my
Mom that she needed to stop
boring you with that boring
notes-on-grammar stuff. So
today I’m going to help her
teach you about prepositions.
This stuff is important, though, so
anytime you see this symbol 
make sure that piece of info goes
down in your notes.

3. What is a
Preposition?

4. Spooky is sleeping on the bed.

5. Spooky is wrapped in a towel.

6. Spooky is hiding under the
staircase.

7. Have you figured it out yet?
 A preposition is a word that
relates a noun or pronoun to
another word.

8. The ant on the floor captured
Spooky’s attention.
 The preposition on connects floor with ant
and shows the relationship between them.

9.  Most common prepositions
Aboard
Above
Across
After
Against
Along
Among
Around
At
Before
Behind
Below
Beneath
Beside
Between
Beyond
By
Concerning
Down
During
Except
For
From
In
Inside
Into
Like
Near
Of
Off
On
Out
Outside
Over
Past
Since
Through
Throughout
To
Toward
Under
Underneath
Until
Up
Upon
With
Within
Without

10.  A phrase is a group of words.
A prepositional phrase is one that begins with
a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun
as its object..
“Out on the porch” is the prepositional phrase.
“Out on” is the preposition. (sometimes
prepositions consist of more than one word.)
Porch is the object of the preposition.

11.  A prepositional phrase can
NEVER be the subject of a
sentence.

12. So when you have trouble finding subjects,
just get rid of the prepositional phrases. That will
narrow your search to what's left.
1. During the football game, I snuck into the kitchen.
2. The scraps from dinner were in the garbage.
3. Except for the dog, no one was at home.
4. With one nudge, I pushed the can on its side.
5. Until the end of the game, I could snack on the
scraps with no fear of interruption

13.  Prepositional Phrases
Role of a prepositional phrase
is to describe a word or group
of words that appear in the
same sentence

14.  Adjective Phrase
Adjective Phrase: a prepositional
phrase that modifies, or describes
a noun or pronoun (just like a
regular adjective would)

15. Spooky attacked the fly on the wall.
“On the wall” describing the fly (noun)
(names which fly it is), so it’s an
adjective.
Spooky drank the milk from the saucer.
 “from the saucer” describes the milk
(noun) and tells the reader where the
milk is, so it is an adjective.

16.  Adverb Phrase
A prepositional phrase that may
modify, or describe, a verb.
It’s a phrase, beginning with a
preposition, that acts like an
adverb.

17. Examples
• At night, Spooky
sleeps in bed with me.
• The prepositional
phrases “At night,” “in
bed,” and “with me”
describe when and
where Spooky is
“sleeping”.

18. Spooky often hides in the sink
 “In the sink”
and “often”
describe
where and
when Spooky
“sleeps”
(verb).
“Often” is a regular adverb & “On his back” is
an adverbial prepositional phrase.

19.  You know that a verb must agree
in number with its subject. A
singular subject (“the mouse,”
“she,” “the ball” must have a
singular verb (“tastes,” “pets”
“rolls”)
Otherwise, the sentence sounds off,
right?
For example, “the mouse taste
good” is grammatically wrong. She
pet me,” doesn’t work either. But
“The mouse tastes good” and “She
pets me” works!

20.  Agreement is easy when the subject
and the verb appear side by side.
Sometimes, however, the prepositional
phrase comes between the subject and the
verb.
Remember how I said a prepositional
phrase cannot be the subject of the
sentence?  A prepositional phrase is
there to act as an adverb or an adjective.
An adverb or an adjective cannot be the
subject of a sentence either!

21.  So, you need to make sure the
verb agrees with the subject of the
sentence and not the noun in the
prepositional phrase.
 The other cats in my house respect that I
am Miss Santerre’s favorite.
“In my house” is a prepositional phrase. The
verb “respect” agrees with the subject
“cats,” not with the noun “house” which is
in the prepositional phrase.

22. When figuring out the
subject of a sentence,
cross out the
prepositional phrases,
and determine the
subject and verb from
the words that are left!

23. Macmillan English
p. 119 #1-10
p. 121 #1-10
p. 123 #1-12
For Extra
Practice for
Homework
PS: Sorry about the
homework. She
promised me extra
cat treats if I assigned
homework.

24. For More Practice