What is it?

The “Position, direction and movement” collection can be used as part of the shape and space area of the key stage 1 (P1-3) numeracy curriculum. Many of the resources have scope for cross-curricular links, particularly with geography, ICT and literacy.

How to use it

Among the TESiboard interactive activities is a series suitable for reception children that focuses on relative position, encouraging pupils to understand and practise positional language. One activity asks pupils to watch a bear’s holiday videos and then choose words and images to describe the bear’s position in the scenes, while a treasure hunt asks them to follow instructions to find the treasure.

Early movement activities that ignore the concept of turns include one where children have to move a dancing bear; an interactive drawing tool; and a cheese sniffer game, where pupils work in pairs or groups to work out the route to the nearest cheese. A boat activity introduces simple grid references, as children use compass points and directional arrows to move a boat around a grid.

For turning and movement, activities include a drawing and control toy where pupils make patterns and pictures out of lines and turns; a game where they guide a rocket, snail or shark to different places on a grid; and a spaceship game pupils play in pairs to see if they can follow each other’s instructions to collect discarded fuel canisters and avoid meteors.

Control activities, involving more precise, programmed instructions, separate the control panel from the object, forcing pupils to consider orientation as left and right are reversed. These include a game where pupils input instructions to help the chameleon catch flies.

Where to find it

www.tes.co.ukpositiondirection.