Position, Direction and Turns

What you will learn

• Use words such as left, right, up, down, forwards and backwards to say where something is.
• Give and follow directions made of counted steps on a grid.
• Describe a turn as a quarter, half, three-quarter or full turn, and say whether it is clockwise or anticlockwise.

Before you start: you should be able to count to $20$ and know your left from your right. Counting and Place Value covers the counting.

The idea

A friend is coming to your house and asks the way. You could say “it’s over there”, but that is not much help. Better to say “go along the road, turn right at the post box, then walk five houses”. Good directions use three things: where you start, which way to go and how far, and when to turn. This lesson is about all three.

Position words

Position tells you where something is compared with something else.

• Left and right depend on which way you are facing. Hold up your hands: the hand you write with is usually easiest to tell apart from the other.
• Up and down go towards the sky and towards the ground. On a page, up is towards the top of the paper.
• Forwards is the way you are facing and backwards is the opposite way.
• Words like above, below, next to, between and in front of place one thing against another.

Moving on a grid

A grid is a pattern of equal squares. It is a good place to practise directions because you can count the squares you move.

To give directions, say which way and how many squares. “Move $3$ right, then $2$ up” is a clear instruction. Always count the squares you move, not the square you start in.

The order of the steps can change the path but not where you end up, as long as the moves are the same. Going $2$ up then $3$ right ends on the same square as $3$ right then $2$ up.

Describing where something is

You can say where something is by giving the moves from a start square. If a pond is $3$ squares right and $2$ squares up from the start, that is its position.

Turning

A turn changes the way you face without moving to a new place. The size of a turn is how much of a full circle you go round.

• A quarter turn is one quarter of the way round.
• A half turn is half of the way round. You end up facing the opposite way.
• A three-quarter turn is three quarters of the way round.
• A full turn is all the way round. You end up facing the way you started.

Turns add up. Two quarter turns make a half turn, and four quarter turns make a full turn.

Clockwise and anticlockwise

Which way do you turn? Clockwise is the same way that the hands on a clock go round. Anticlockwise is the opposite way. A quarter turn clockwise and a quarter turn anticlockwise point you in opposite directions, but a half turn ends up in the same place either way.

A quarter turn is the same size as the corner of a page. Look at Shapes All Around to see these square corners, called right angles, and at Angles to measure turns later.

Worked examples

Example 1: Following directions

A beetle starts on a grid. It moves $2$ squares right, then $3$ squares up, then $1$ square left. How far right of the start does it finish, and how far up?

1. Right and left cancel in part. $2$ right and then $1$ left leaves $2 - 1 = 1$ square right.
2. Only one move goes up: $3$ squares up.
3. So it finishes $1$ right and $3$ up from the start.

Answer: $1$ square right and $3$ squares up.

Example 2: Giving a position

On the treasure map above, the cave is on the top row. How would you tell a friend where the cave is from the start?

1. Count across. The cave is in the fifth column, so it is $4$ squares right of the start (the start is the first column).
2. Count up. The cave is in the fifth row, so it is $4$ squares up.
3. Say the across number first, then the up number.

Answer: $4$ right and $4$ up from the start.

Example 3: Turning round

Zara faces the window. She makes a quarter turn clockwise, then another quarter turn clockwise. How much has she turned in total, and which way is she facing?

1. Add the turns: a quarter and a quarter makes a half turn.
2. A half turn points her the opposite way, so she faces away from the window.
3. Two more quarter turns would bring her back to the window, because four quarters make a full turn.

Answer: A half turn. She is facing away from the window.

Left and right swap if you face the other way. If someone faces you and says “go to my left”, that is on your right. Check which way a person is facing before you follow their left or right.

Why it matters

Directions and turns are how we find places, read maps, program a toy robot and follow a recipe for folding paper. Pilots, drivers and game designers all describe routes as a list of moves and turns. Later, the grid you moved around in this lesson grows into coordinates for plotting points, and the turns grow into angles measured in degrees.