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All English activities

Activities: “What is the possessive construction in English?”

By: Erin Kuester

Activity 1: Whose coat?

Sarah and Peter are preschool teachers. It’s the end of the day and they are trying to get the children ready for their parents to pick them up, but they can’t remember which coat belongs to which child! Help them figure it out and for each blank below, write in the correct name with the possessive -s'.

  • Sarah: Uh oh! Who does this coat belong to?

  • Peter: Mark loves nature, so I think coat is the green one.

  • Sarah: What about these two? I think (Oscar and Heidi) coats are both blue, but one is light and one is dark. I think Heidi has the dark blue one, so the light blue one must be coat.

  • Peter: Here’s a red coat. I remember George saying that his favorite color is red, so this must be coat.

  • Sarah: And Freya loves pink, so I think coat is this pink one.

  • Peter: Who is left? Oh, Madison and Avery are twins and their mom likes to dress them alike. I think the matching black coats are coats.

  • Sarah: Hmm…but there is still a purple coat and an orange coat!

  • Peter: Well I think Lucas likes orange, so that’s probably coat.

  • Sarah: Oh, and Valerie loves purple, so this one is coat.

  • Peter: Great! Looks like we’ve figured it all out!

  • Peter: Next time, let’s ask the parents to write (the children) names on the tags!

  • Peter: Now we just need to figure out (the teachers) coats…

Activity 2: Part to whole relationship

To show a part of a whole relationship between two objects, we usually use an X of Y prepositional phrase.

Can you put together these X of Y phrases so that they make sense?
Word BankChoose a word, then choose a blank. You can also drag.
  1. The of the tree
  2. The of the bus
  3. The of the city
  4. The of the book
  5. The of the clock
  6. The of the guitar
  7. The of the shirt
  8. The of the house
  9. The of the door

Bonus Challenge: Possessive adjectives!

For an extra challenge, let’s try the dialogue from Activity 1 again, but try using possessive adjectives in the blank spaces!

Hint:
Male children: Mark, Oscar, George, Lucas
Female children: Heidi, Freya, Madison, Avery, Valerie

  • Sarah: Uh oh! Who does this coat belong to?

  • Peter: Mark loves nature, so I think coat is the green one.

  • Sarah: What about these two? I think Oscar and Heidi's coats are both blue, but one is light and one is dark. I think Heidi has the dark blue one, so the light blue one must be coat.

  • Peter: Here’s a red coat. I remember George saying that his favorite color is red, so this must be coat.

  • Sarah: And Freya loves pink, so I think coat is this pink one.

  • Peter: Who is left? Oh, Madison and Avery are twins and their mom likes to dress them alike. I think the matching black coats are coats.

  • Sarah: Hmm…but there is still a purple coat and an orange coat!

  • Peter: Well I think Lucas likes orange, so that’s probably coat.

  • Sarah: Oh, and Valerie loves purple, so this one is coat.

  • Peter: Great! Looks like we’ve figured it all out!

  • Peter: Next time, let’s ask the parents to write (the children) names on the tags!

  • Peter: Now we just need to figure out (the teachers) coats…