Teach Primary Issue 18.4

opportunities to read the positional and directional vocabulary themselves. Each set of instructions will have a series of steps to follow with the directional language chosen for the lesson. Planning a range of starting points for each pair or team would be really useful for this activity to work successfully. Being outside allows for a larger area to be used, allowing different teams the space they need to follow their instructions without bumping into another ‘crew’. Now children follow their instruction list to bury their treasure. This section of the lesson gives the children the opportunity to follow a series of directional steps independently. Asking the children to work in teams allows the adults the flexibility to assess pupils’ around each coned route. This would allow different children the opportunity to give the instruction orders at each station they visit. Alternatively, if children are not at this point of independence, multiple identical routes could be set up and you can give the orders to everyone to follow. Finally, announce that the pirates have passed their training and are ready to bury their treasure. 2| BURIED TREASURE Explain to the children that they are now ready to bury their treasure. You could use mathematical equipment or plastic coins as the treasure – or even chocolate coins! Provide the children with a list of directional steps to work with in pairs or teams. It’s important to ensure you allow the children • Finding the treasure could be a totally practical activity, or it could incorporate the opportunity for pirates to record the steps they create. This would be a chance for the children to practise their spelling of the positional and directional vocabulary. If this were the case, as the lesson is outside, don’t forget to include clipboards in the resources needed. • Encourage the pirates to discuss how best to tackle the problem with their crew, and explain how there is not just one route. You could challenge them to find three different routes, or ask each member of the crew to find a different route. • To extend the final task further, the pirate captain could introduce challenges to each crew. Can they find the shortest route to their treasure? Can they design a route with four turns? EXTENDING THE LESSON understanding of directional vocabulary through observation. Depending on the length of the session, children could repeat this activity in different teams, swapping their instructional list to complete the activity more than once. Alternatively, all teams could be given identical instructional lists which increase in difficulty, for example an increase in the number of steps, or level of directional vocabulary. It may be appropriate during this lesson to encourage children to use imperative verbs to introduce their directional instructions. For example: “First, move forward three steps.” Children may also be encouraged to tick off each step as they move through the series. 3| FINDING THE TREASURE Once all the treasure is buried, the ‘pirates’ now need to be given the opportunity to lead others to find the treasure. As you explain to the children that they are now going to create their own set of steps to find the treasure again, return to the original ideas about what would make this task successful. Children can choose their own starting point for this final activity, and then work as a team/pair to guide one of the pirates in their crew from the starting point to the buried treasure – ensuring that they are transferring their knowledge and understanding to the task. This will provide the opportunity for children to extend their reasoning and problem-solving skills through a more challenging scenario. The teacher’s role in this section would be to support pupils with this reasoning activity. Ruth Astley is a former assistant headteacher, SLE for assessment and English, and former LA moderation manager. “Using the outside environment to teach position and direction gives these concepts a real-life context” • What does it mean when we say something is above another object? • Show me how to move forward. • “Move two steps forward.” Can you demonstrate this movement? USEFUL QUESTIONS www.teachwire.net | 77