You can teach this lesson on spatial concepts to a group of kids in your classroom, a gym or outdoors, weather permitting. Make sure that each child has enough room to extend his arms and move around his desk freely. Reposition the desks, if needed, or find a larger learning space.
You will need a few materials for this spatial concept lesson. Besides the children and their desks, you should grab some wooden blocks and at least one stuffed animal for each child. Make it a “Bring a teddy bear to school” day. You may also want to gather some small stickers, rulers, pencils and paper.
To engage your students in this lesson, turn this lesson into a modified Simon Says game. You start off with “Simon says…” and finish with phrases like, “Place your teddy bear ON your head,” “Put the square block UNDER a rectangle block,” “Stand NEXT TO your desk” or “Sit BELOW your desk.” Emphasize the spatial concept words to make your point. Write a list of spatial concept words on the chalkboard and allow the kids to a take turn being Simon, making sure they use one of the words on the list.
If you are tying this lesson into a math lesson on measuring, you can also offer each child a piece of paper, pencil and a handful of small stickers to play this game. Give Simon Says directions on what to do with the materials, such as “Draw a triangle shape IN THE MIDDLE OF the paper,” “Measure two inches ABOVE the triangle and draw a circle” and “Place a sticker TO THE RIGHT OF the circle.”