Before, Between, After

During my prep period today, I wandered into the kindergarten room on my way back from the office.They were working on the words before, between, and after. These are words my class needs review on as well, so I stayed for the lesson.

The problems they had with these words were the same issues that my own students were having. The shapes were arranged on the white board and the students were asked where shapes were in relation with each other using the words before, between, and after.

Time after time the students would use the opposite word the teacher was looking for. 

I looked around for some clues as to why the students were getting the words mixed up. The first reason I thought of was a cultural one. Japanese writing is originally right to left, so I wondered if there was something else about Japan that was influencing them. I quickly dismissed this theory when an American boy made the same mistake as his Japanese counterparts.

Then I wondered if the way they line up to leave the room is influencing their understanding of before and after. The way they line up is how they were explaining before and after.