How to use "preparations" in a sentence

Madeleine was making preparations to leave for Montfermeil and to fetch Cosette himself, he had a visitor

Valjean spent all day making preparations to leave

The preparations went on

The preparations for the great day went on

As it was reported later, most of them remained busy with preparations in the pit on Horsell Common until nine that night, doing something that produced a great amount of Black Smoke.