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National Curriculum Resource Tool

Materials to support teachers and schools in embedding the National Curriculum

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Year 1 - Geometry - position and direction

New Curriculum

  • describe position, direction and movement, including whole, half, quarter and three-quarter turns.

Non-Statutory Guidance

Pupils use the language of position, direction and motion, including: left and right, top, middle and bottom, on top of, in front of, above, between, around, near, close and far, up and down, forwards and backwards, inside and outside. Pupils make whole, half, quarter and three-quarter turns in both directions and connect turning clockwise with movement on a clock face.

Links and Resources

Teachers should use every relevant subject to develop pupils’ mathematical fluency. Confidence in numeracy and other mathematical skills is a precondition of success across the national curriculum.
Teachers should develop pupils’ numeracy and mathematical reasoning in all subjects so that they understand and appreciate the importance of mathematics.

– National Curriculum in England Framework Document, September 2013, p10)

Connections within Mathematics

Making connections to other topics within this year group

Work within geometry relating to position and direction can be linked to other areas of the mathematics curriculum. For example, when using clock faces and hoops relating to position, key elements can be reinforced.

Making connections to this topic in adjacent year groups

Early Years Foundation Stage

Mathematics Early Learning Goal

  • Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems.

Year 2

Pupils should be taught to:

  • order and arrange combinations of mathematical objects in patterns and sequences
  • use mathematical vocabulary to describe position, direction and movement, including movement in a straight line and distinguishing between rotation as a turn and in terms of right angles for quarter, half and three-quarter turns (clockwise and anti-clockwise).

Non statutory guidance

Pupils should work with patterns of shapes, including those in different orientations. Pupils use the concept and language of angles to describe ‘turn’ by applying rotations, including in practical contexts (for example, pupils themselves moving in turns, giving instructions to other pupils to do so, and programming robots using instructions given in right angles)

Cross-curricular and real life connections

Aspects of position, direction and movement can be integrated with work in other areas of the curriculum.

PE and dance lessons prove easy contexts in which to apply and consolidate skills. Games can include instructions relating to position and direction, e.g. labelling the corners of a room the ‘N, S, E and W’

Action songs, rhymes and games such as ‘Simon Says…’ can be adapted to include directional instructions

Many popular children’s stories can provide engaging contexts for this mathematical work. ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ (Rosen, M.& Oxenbury, H.,1997, Walker Books) is a good example where the vocabulary of position, direction and movement can be used in context. ‘Rosie’s Walk’ (Hutchins, P, 1998, Bodley Head) and ‘Katie Morag Delivers the Mail’(Hedderiwck, M, 2-1-, Red Fox): both provide superb contexts in which to teach an understanding of directional maps and models

Small world play resources, using play mats and figures, can provide excellent settings for creating real life scenarios (traffic following set routes, animals being delivered to a zoo, stacking classroom shop shelves with supplies etc.) to physically demonstrate and practise key skills.

This is one of a series of papers resulting from a review commissioned by the Nuffield Foundation of the available research literature on how children learn mathematics. This paper considers children’s informal knowledge of space and spatial relations and their formal learning of geometry and deals with the connection between these two kinds of knowledge, providing summary headlines and recommendations for teaching and learning, together with the main report and supporting bibliographic references.

Programme of Study statements Activities
A B C D E
Describe position, directions and movements, including half, quarter and three-quarter turns.

Activity A

Create a display with a selection of shapes attached by split pin fasteners; each day, rotate the shapes and talk to the children about the changes.

Rectangles

Activity B - Robotic toys

Allow the children to design and set up a ‘maze’, through which they can direct each other or a floor robot, with clear instructions. Set out cards numbered 1-12 on the floor in a circular arrangement to imitate a clock. A floor robot can be programmed to travel to a specific number on the ‘clock’, e.g. ‘3’. Children can predict where it will end up next, if programmed to make half a turn before travelling forwards for example.

Two clocks

Activity C - Barrier games

Children work in pairs with a ‘barrier’ between them (e.g. a large book standing upright), so that they cannot see what their partner is doing. Both children are provided with a small number of interlocking cubes. Child A has to make a model, explaining verbally exactly how they are doing this; Child B has to try to make the same model, following these instructions. Once the models are completed, the barrier is removed and children compare their models.

Cubes

Activity D - Treasure hunts

Get the children to hide a ‘treasure’, somewhere in the room or playground, and then ask them to give each other clues as to where to go, to get closer to the treasure.

They could also try to find the treasure on a large floor grid in which each square is marked off – begin with a 5 x 5 square labelled A-E and 1-5. ‘Child A’ steps in the square where s/he thinks the treasure might be hidden. ‘Child B’ (who has hidden the treasure) has to work out how far away this first child is, using only vertical or horizontal steps, or a combination of both. They can be given a whiteboard to record the fact that s/he is ‘2 steps away’. A second child is invited to take up a position of their choice, on this grid, with reference to this information, possibly after discussing the various possibilities. The hunt goes on, and more children join the grid, until the ‘treasure’ is found.

Children can also then make their own treasure maps on paper, using a similar grid system and adding in their own individual illustrations of a ‘treasure island’. This can also be extended to a ‘battleships’ type barrier game, where one child positions their ship on one side of a grid, unseen by the second child and s/he has to decide where to place her/his ship.

Grid

Activity E – collection of ideas

‘Movement and Position in Key Stage 1’ is a collection of activities from Nrich, designed to enable the children to explore shapes, movement and position in enjoyable ways.

Examples of what children should be able to do, in relation to each (boxed) Programme of Study statement

Pupils should be taught to describe position, direction and movement, including whole, half, quarter and three-quarter turns.

Look at the map. Go to start.

Follow this route from there.

Go to the fourth house on the right.

Draw a ring around it.

Map

Look at this map

Map

Desi's house is the 2nd on the left. Tick ( ✔) it.

This video, originally from Teachers TV, shows EYFS children learning about position and direction through play. Some useful ideas that could be integrated into Year 1 classrooms.