Measurement & Geometry
Chapter 15 | Directions and maps
Teacher Resource Sheets
Getting Started
Water park (Getting started 15)
(You could use this sheet before starting the chapter to discover what vocabulary and concepts are already known and used by students.)
This displays the Getting started on page 257 of the Student Resource Book.
- You might introduce this activity and gauge student’s prior knowledge by asking students to describe the pathway from the Gate to Neptune’s café. Listen and note any students who make reference to distance, or use left / right / clockwise / anticlockwise to describe turns.
- Check to see whether students understand what they are seeing when looking at the map from above, and whether they can project themselves into the map, visualising themselves walking along the path to say what is to their left or right.
Giving directions - Revision at Level 1
The following resource may be useful if the check up on page 258 of the Student Resource Book shows that students need revision of concepts at Level 1.
Deep in the sea (Teacher Resource Sheet 59)
(You could use this sheet to develop the positional language needed for description of position or direction of movement.)
This displays an underwater scene which students describe by selecting appropriate words from a word bank. It could be used after the check up for further practise.
- Students could be encouraged to add to the word bank or write more than one sentence about what they notice in the picture.
- Similar pictures, perhaps from a picture or storybook, could be used for discussion or to describe movement from place to place.
How do I get there? (Teacher Resource Sheet 60)
(You could use this sheet to provide practice at giving and following instruction that include position or movement along a path after the teaching section on page 260 of the Student Resource Book.)
This encourages students to create a path through the playground or classroom, and to give directions for the path. It provides practice at sequencing and describing and will support students understanding of the between 3-D experience of a place and 2-D representations.
- Using the school or a familiar local playground will allow students to move through the equipment or classroom as they plan, practising the sequence and the language they could use to describe their path.
- Drawing may be difficult for some children so if possible provide a photograph of the playground or classroom instead.
- Placing a student at different points within the playground or classroom and having others describe what they think the student might see if they looked straight ahead, or made a quarter turn or a half turn, is good practice for imagining the view from a different perspective.
Around the Ocean (Teacher Resource Sheet 61)
(You could use this sheet in conjunction with Activity 1, on page 261 in the Student Resource Book to provide further practice.)
This displays a 3 x 3 grid with pictures to practise vocabulary related to direction.
- The activity can be modified to practise new vocabulary from different curriculum levels.
- Level 1 use positional vocabulary (e.g. above, below, beside, between, left or right). For example, ‘What creature is 2 squares to the left of the seahorse? What creature is between the fish and the crab?’
- Level 2 Clockwise and Anticlockwise. For example, ‘If the fish is facing the dolphin, which creature will it be facing if it makes a ¼ turn anticlockwise?’
- It could also be played alongside the Maps section with Level 2 NESW Compass Directions after Activity 2 on page 265 of the Student Resource Book. For example, what creature is north of the whale?
- Although the creatures are labelled with their names, teachers may choose to have students record the number of the sea creature rather than its name.
- This task could be printed out, laminated and used as a follow up activity with students giving directions to a partner.
- The task can also be turned into a variation of naughts and crosses with students describing the position of the animal and ‘claiming it’ with a counter if their directions are accurate.
Maps
Diving for treasure (Teacher Resource Sheet 62)
(You could use this sheet after Activity 2, on page 265 of the Student Resource Book.)
This displays a 6 x 6 grid. Students read the map to say what the diver will see if he starts at an object and swims north, west, south or east.
- You could encourage students to choose an object on the grid and ask a partner what might be seen from that point if they moved North, West, South or East.
- For extension you could ask students to follow a path which also requires counting squares. For example:
The diver went:
East 1 square and found a …..
North 2 squares and found a …..
West 1 square and found a ….
North 3 squares and found a ….
East 5 squares and found a ….
South 5 squares and found a ….
West 2 squares and found a ….
North 3 squares and found a ….
