A day for grandparents: prepositional phrases: in honor of, on behalf of

Q: What are prepositional phrases?

A prepositional phrase is a preposition plus the noun or pronoun after it : on the table , in the morning , with her . Some are fixed chunks of preposition + noun + preposition that work almost like a single preposition and take their own noun: in honor of grandparents , on behalf of the team . The B2 lesson A day for grandparents on edio.ai teaches nine of these fixed phrases through National Grandparents Day.

Q: What does “on behalf of” mean?

It means for someone, as their representative : Leona wrote the thank-you note on behalf of the team. She speaks for everyone, not only for herself. With a pronoun, you can say on my behalf or on her behalf . The last word is always of , so on behalf for the team is wrong. A day for grandparents on edio.ai practices it in a chat and in a thank-you note to readers.

Q: What's the difference between “in honor of” and “in memory of”?

In memory of is only for someone who has died : The town planted a tree in memory of a teacher who died last spring. In honor of shows respect or celebration, for the living and for people who have died: a party in honor of Grandpa's eightieth birthday , a day in honor of grandparents . A tip in the scheme of A day for grandparents on edio.ai puts the two side by side.

Q: Is it “in charge of” or “in charge for”?

It's in charge of : these fixed phrases never change their prepositions . The same goes for in honor of (not in honor to ), on behalf of (not on behalf for ), in touch with (not in touch to ) and at the heart of (not at the heart in ). A sort in A day for grandparents on edio.ai splits ten phrases into correct and wrong ones.

Q: What are some examples of prepositional phrases?

Six from A day for grandparents on edio.ai: Our last issue is in honor of our readers' grandparents. McQuade worked on behalf of older people for years. Readers' stories are at the heart of the issue. Harper is in charge of the photos. Isaiah is in favor of fewer cards. Nell stays in touch with her grandkids. A noun follows each phrase , and an -ing form can too: in charge of planning .

Q: When is National Grandparents Day?

It's the first Sunday after Labor Day , so it always falls between September 7 and September 13. The first one was Sunday, September 10, 1978, and since a 1979 law, the President is asked to proclaim it every year. It's a day of recognition, not a federal holiday, so nobody gets a day off, and its name has no apostrophe. A day for grandparents on edio.ai explains the dates.

Q: Who started National Grandparents Day?

Marian McQuade of Oak Hill, West Virginia , a mother of 15 with more than 40 grandchildren, began a campaign for the day in 1970. In 1973, her governor proclaimed West Virginia's first Grandparents Day, and she wrote to leaders in all 50 states; her daughter says 43 sent back resolutions or proclamations. On August 3, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation naming Sunday, September 10, 1978. Leona's explainer in A day for grandparents on edio.ai tells the story.

Q: How do I teach prepositional phrases to B2 students?

Start with meaning, then lock the prepositions : show what each phrase does in a real sentence, then drill both prepositions as one unit, with slips like in honor to . Add partner verbs ( stay in touch with ) once the forms are solid. A day for grandparents on edio.ai moves from Leona's explainer and an office debate to the scheme, a choice drill, typed phrases, a meaning quiz, a correct-or-wrong sort and word order.

Q: What's a good game for practicing prepositional phrases?

Play “Preposition sandwich” : show a noun card such as honor , behalf , touch or charge , and teams have ten seconds to add both prepositions and say a sentence: I'm in charge of the snacks. For speaking, the boxes in A day for grandparents on edio.ai ask If you were in charge of a day in honor of grandparents in your town, what would you plan?

Q: What's good homework for prepositional phrases?

Good homework asks for one missing word inside the phrase : I accepted the prize on behalf ___ my whole team. Add choices that test the prepositions, word order and a short text with gaps. All ten homework tasks in A day for grandparents on edio.ai check themselves, ending with Leona's thank-you note to the readers and her answer to Nell, a grandmother from West Virginia.

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches prepositional phrases such as in honor of and on behalf of through National Grandparents Day, which began with a West Virginia grandmother's campaign.

Grammar: Fixed phrases of preposition + noun + preposition (in honor of, on behalf of, in touch with, at the heart of, in charge of), their partner verbs and formal with regard to.
Topic: How Marian McQuade's letters and President Carter's 1978 proclamation gave grandparents a day, with words such as proclaim, heirloom, keepsake and gratitude.
Activities: An explainer to read, an office debate and a reader's voice memo to hear, self-checking drills, an end-of-year chat and boxes about grandparents.

What's inside

Chapter 1Warm-up: who shaped you?
- PictureUnlock
- Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
- Study the words: a day for grandparentsVocabularyTry it
- Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock
Chapter 2Letters to all fifty states
- Look at the photo: where the idea beganPictureUnlock
- Read Leona's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
- Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Match the paragraphs and the headingsMatchUnlock
Chapter 3A card-shop holiday?
- Listen to Leona and IsaiahListeningTry it
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Nell's voice memoListeningUnlock
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
Chapter 4Grammar: in honor of our grandparents
- Study the scheme: in honor of, on behalf ofGrammar schemeTry it
- Choose the correct optionChoose the optionTry it
- Fill in the gaps: use the words in bracketsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the correct answer: which phrase fits?QuizUnlock
- Sort the phrases into the correct columns: correct or wrong?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock
Chapter 5Let's talk: see you next year
- Choose the right replies: the end-of-year meetingChatTry it
- Open a box and answer: a day for grandparentsOpen the boxUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
- Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
- Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
- Complete the fixed phrases: type one wordFill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the correct answer: which sentence is correct?QuizUnlock
- Put the words in the correct order: new sentencesUnjumbleUnlock
- Choose the correct option: a thank-you note to our readersChoose the optionUnlock
- Drag the words into the gaps: Leona answers NellDrag and dropUnlock

Family vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

set aside
bond
pass down
heirloom
keepsake
commercial
resolution
recognition
gratitude

Grammar: fixed prepositional phrases

Some phrases come as a set: a preposition, a noun and a second preposition, as in in honor of or on behalf of. The story of a day set aside in honor of grandparents is full of them, so learners treat each phrase as one unchanging chunk, add the verbs that go with it and tell everyday phrases from formal ones.

In honor of our grandparents

Some phrases are fixed: a preposition, a noun and another preposition. Learn each one as a single chunk, and never change its prepositions.

Nine phrases and what they mean

In honor of shows respect or celebration, in touch with means in contact, at the heart of means at the center, and in charge of means responsible for. On behalf of means “for someone, as their voice”: a note on behalf of the team.

Nine fixed phrases

Phrase	What it means	Example
in honor of	to show respect for someone or celebrate them	a day in honor of grandparents
in memory of	to remember someone who has died	a tree planted in memory of a teacher
on behalf of	for someone, speaking or acting as their voice	a note on behalf of the team
in touch with	in contact: talking or writing to someone	Nell stays in touch with her grandkids.
at the heart of	at the center; the most important part of	Family is at the heart of the day.
in charge of	responsible for something or someone	Harper is in charge of the photos.
in favor of	supporting an idea or a plan	Isaiah is in favor of fewer cards.
with regard to (formal)	about	With regard to your letter, …
by means of (formal)	using; with the help of	She spread the idea by means of letters.

At The Why Desk

Our last issue is in honor of our readers' grandparents.
McQuade worked on behalf of older people for years.
Leona wrote the thank-you note on behalf of the team.
Readers' stories are at the heart of the issue.
Isaiah is in charge of the fact box, and Harper is in charge of the photos.
Pascal stays in touch with Isaiah's desk every day.

The prepositions never change

Each phrase keeps its own two prepositions: in honor of, not in honor to; on behalf of, not on behalf for; in charge of, not in charge for. After the last one comes a noun, a pronoun or an -ing form: in charge of planning.

One set of prepositions, always the same

These phrases never change their prepositions: in honor of (not in honor to), on behalf of (not on behalf for), in touch with (not in touch to), at the heart of (not at the heart in), in charge of (not in charge for), in favor of (not in favor to). After the last preposition comes a noun, a pronoun or an -ing form: in charge of planning.

Common mistakes

a day in honor to grandparents
a day in honor of grandparents
in honor of, always
I'm writing on behalf for the team.
I'm writing on behalf of the team.
on behalf of
I keep in touch to my cousins.
I keep in touch with my cousins.
in touch with
Harper is in charge for the photos.
Harper is in charge of the photos.
in charge of

Verbs that go with them

Many phrases come with partner verbs: hold a party in honor of, write on behalf of, stay, keep or get in touch with, put someone in charge of. When contact ends, say lose touch with, with no in.

Phrase	Common partners	Example
in honor of	name / hold / plant … in honor of	They held a party in honor of Grandma's birthday.
on behalf of	speak / write / accept … on behalf of; on my / her behalf	I'm writing on behalf of my class.
in touch with	stay / keep / get in touch with; lose touch with (no in!)	We lost touch with them for years.
in charge of	be / put someone in charge of	Leona put Isaiah in charge of the fact box.
in favor of	be / vote / argue in favor of + noun or -ing	Most of us are in favor of waiting.

In honor of or in memory of? Everyday or formal?

In memory of is only for someone who has died: a garden in memory of a teacher. In honor of works for the living, too: a party in honor of Grandma's birthday. With regard to and by means of are formal: keep them for emails and reports.

Honor or memory? Formal or everyday?

Use in memory of only for someone who has died: a garden in memory of a teacher. In honor of works for the living (a party in honor of Grandma's birthday) and for people who have died too. With regard to and by means of are formal: use them in emails and reports, not in a chat. In regard to is also correct.

More lessons on this grammar: Prepositions lessons and exercises

Try the prepositional phrases exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

What's in the lesson

18 auto-checked exercises
6 games
1 article
1 grammar scheme
1 set of word cards
2 audio clips
2 pictures
2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

use fixed phrases as single chunks: a day in honor of grandparents, a note on behalf of the team, Family is at the heart of the day.
keep each phrase's prepositions: in charge of, not in charge for; in touch with, not in touch to
choose between in honor of and in memory of: a party in honor of Grandma's birthday, a tree planted in memory of a teacher
follow a phrase with a noun, a pronoun or an -ing form: Most of us are in favor of waiting.
debate whether Grandparents Day is a real tradition or a card-shop holiday: I'm in favor of letters, especially for grandparents.

Lesson 32 closes Generations, unit 8, and with it English B2.2 · Culture and Society, the last of the general B2 courses. Lesson 12 paired nouns with their prepositions (a need for, access to); here a noun sits between two prepositions in a fixed phrase. A day that a president set aside in honor of grandparents, after a grandmother had worked on behalf of older people for years, is a natural home for these phrases.

Students spin a wheel about the people who shaped them, then learn twelve words, from proclaim and cherish to heirloom and gratitude, with pictures and audio. They read Leona's explainer on how National Grandparents Day began, then hear Isaiah call it a card-shop holiday while Leona defends it, and Nell, 70, from West Virginia, argue that a card is a keepsake; both are AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking exercises, among them a sort of correct and wrong phrases. To end the course, students reply to Harper at the team's end-of-year meeting in a chat and open boxes about a day for grandparents.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a word match, an anagram, gaps with the lesson's words and a memory game, then new sentences to choose from, one-word gaps inside the phrases, a quiz on correct sentences and word order, ending with Leona's thank-you note to the readers and her answer to Nell with words to drag in.

Grammar:: prepositional phrases · in honor of, in memory of · on behalf of, in touch with · at the heart of, in charge of, in favor of · with regard to, by means of
Topic:: National Grandparents Day · Marian McQuade · West Virginia · President Carter's proclamation · grandparents and grandchildren · generations · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

Write each phrase with one word missing: in honor ___, ___ behalf of, in touch ___. Pairs race to complete them, then use each phrase in a sentence about their own family.
Ask when students last wrote a letter by hand before the reading. Then they read to find how one grandmother used letters to reach leaders in all 50 states.
Play the office debate twice: first to decide who calls the day a card-shop holiday, then to catch every fixed phrase (in honor of, on behalf of, in charge of, in favor of).
Plan a class event in honor of someone: students decide who is in charge of what, who writes on behalf of the class and who stays in touch with the guests.

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

Unit 1 Learning reimagined
adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that
Unit 2 Work-life balance
be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions
Unit 3 Turning points
reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition
Unit 4 News and truth
although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have
Unit 5 Travel that gives back
so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing
Unit 6 Sport and society
verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs
Unit 7 Buildings and heritage
past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove
Unit 8 Generations
adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases
1. Lesson 29Who decides where a generation ends?Adverb + adjective collocations
2. Lesson 30Music students living in a retirement home?Three-part phrasal verbs
3. Lesson 31Conversations kept for historyNegative questions and echo questions
4. Lesson 32 · you're hereA day for grandparentsFixed prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What are prepositional phrases?

A prepositional phrase is a preposition plus the noun or pronoun after it: on the table, in the morning, with her. Some are fixed chunks of preposition + noun + preposition that work almost like a single preposition and take their own noun: in honor of grandparents, on behalf of the team. The B2 lesson A day for grandparents on edio.ai teaches nine of these fixed phrases through National Grandparents Day.

What does “on behalf of” mean?

It means for someone, as their representative: Leona wrote the thank-you note on behalf of the team. She speaks for everyone, not only for herself. With a pronoun, you can say on my behalf or on her behalf. The last word is always of, so on behalf for the team is wrong. A day for grandparents on edio.ai practices it in a chat and in a thank-you note to readers.

What's the difference between “in honor of” and “in memory of”?

In memory of is only for someone who has died: The town planted a tree in memory of a teacher who died last spring. In honor of shows respect or celebration, for the living and for people who have died: a party in honor of Grandpa's eightieth birthday, a day in honor of grandparents. A tip in the scheme of A day for grandparents on edio.ai puts the two side by side.

Is it “in charge of” or “in charge for”?

It's in charge of: these fixed phrases never change their prepositions. The same goes for in honor of (not in honor to), on behalf of (not on behalf for), in touch with (not in touch to) and at the heart of (not at the heart in). A sort in A day for grandparents on edio.ai splits ten phrases into correct and wrong ones.

What are some examples of prepositional phrases?

Six from A day for grandparents on edio.ai: Our last issue is in honor of our readers' grandparents. McQuade worked on behalf of older people for years. Readers' stories are at the heart of the issue. Harper is in charge of the photos. Isaiah is in favor of fewer cards. Nell stays in touch with her grandkids. A noun follows each phrase, and an -ing form can too: in charge of planning.

When is National Grandparents Day?

It's the first Sunday after Labor Day, so it always falls between September 7 and September 13. The first one was Sunday, September 10, 1978, and since a 1979 law, the President is asked to proclaim it every year. It's a day of recognition, not a federal holiday, so nobody gets a day off, and its name has no apostrophe. A day for grandparents on edio.ai explains the dates.

Who started National Grandparents Day?

Marian McQuade of Oak Hill, West Virginia, a mother of 15 with more than 40 grandchildren, began a campaign for the day in 1970. In 1973, her governor proclaimed West Virginia's first Grandparents Day, and she wrote to leaders in all 50 states; her daughter says 43 sent back resolutions or proclamations. On August 3, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation naming Sunday, September 10, 1978. Leona's explainer in A day for grandparents on edio.ai tells the story.

How do I teach prepositional phrases to B2 students?

Start with meaning, then lock the prepositions: show what each phrase does in a real sentence, then drill both prepositions as one unit, with slips like in honor to. Add partner verbs (stay in touch with) once the forms are solid. A day for grandparents on edio.ai moves from Leona's explainer and an office debate to the scheme, a choice drill, typed phrases, a meaning quiz, a correct-or-wrong sort and word order.

What's a good game for practicing prepositional phrases?

Play “Preposition sandwich”: show a noun card such as honor, behalf, touch or charge, and teams have ten seconds to add both prepositions and say a sentence: I'm in charge of the snacks. For speaking, the boxes in A day for grandparents on edio.ai ask If you were in charge of a day in honor of grandparents in your town, what would you plan?

What's good homework for prepositional phrases?

Good homework asks for one missing word inside the phrase: I accepted the prize on behalf ___ my whole team. Add choices that test the prepositions, word order and a short text with gaps. All ten homework tasks in A day for grandparents on edio.ai check themselves, ending with Leona's thank-you note to the readers and her answer to Nell, a grandmother from West Virginia.

How do you practice prepositional phrases one-to-one?

Write a short formal email together: the student writes on behalf of a club, with regard to an event held in honor of someone, and the teacher replies in the same style. The chat in A day for grandparents on edio.ai works without a partner: at the team's end-of-year meeting, the student asks Harper who's in charge of the photos and answers her questions.

Are there interactive exercises for prepositional phrases?

Yes. This page plays three parts of A day for grandparents, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, without an account: Leona and Isaiah's debate about the day; a multiple-choice drill on each phrase's prepositions; and Harper's chat at the end-of-year meeting. Everything else needs an account.

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About this lesson

What's inside

Family vocabulary

Grammar: fixed prepositional phrases

Nine phrases and what they mean

Nine fixed phrases

At The Why Desk

The prepositions never change

Common mistakes

Verbs that go with them

In honor of or in memory of? Everyday or formal?

Try the prepositional phrases exercises

What's in the lesson

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

Teaching tips

Teach the whole lesson in edio

Start a free trial

Open the lesson

Teach it live or as homework

The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

Unit 1 Learning reimagined

Unit 2 Work-life balance

Unit 3 Turning points

Unit 4 News and truth

Unit 5 Travel that gives back

Unit 6 Sport and society

Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

Unit 8 Generations

Questions about this lesson

Teach this lesson with your students