Directions and location: Year 1 Maths topic guide

What students learn in AC9M1SP02

This unit helps students build a clear, usable understanding of Directions and location. The goal is not to memorise one answer pattern. Students should be able to explain the idea, recognise it in a new example and apply it in a short practice or worksheet task.

• Start with the main idea: give and follow directions to move people and objects to different locations within a space.
• Use concrete examples, pictures, oral explanation and short written responses before moving to independent practice.
• interpreting and following directions around familiar locations, and understanding the meaning and importance of the words when giving directions; for example, using words like “forwards” and “backwards”, “straight ahead”, “left or right” to describe movement and giving instructions like “Keep going straight until you reach the end of this passage and then turn to your right” creating and following an algorithm consisting of a set of instructions to move an object to a different location; for example, role-playing being a robot and following step-by-step instructions given by another classmate to move from one place to another, only moving as instructed
• Finish with mixed questions so students must choose the correct strategy rather than copy the last example.

Curriculum coverage and elaborations

The content description and elaborations below show the curriculum ideas taught in this unit. Items marked as teaching context support lesson planning but may not appear in the initial eight-question activity.

• Content description: give and follow directions to move people and objects to different locations within a space
• E1: interpreting and following directions around familiar locations, and understanding the meaning and importance of the words when giving directions; for example, using words like “forwards” and “backwards”, “straight ahead”, “left or right” to describe movement and giving instructions like “Keep going straight until you reach the end of this passage and then turn to your right”
• E2: creating and following an algorithm consisting of a set of instructions to move an object to a different location; for example, role-playing being a robot and following step-by-step instructions given by another classmate to move from one place to another, only moving as instructed
• E3: following directions to move people into different positions within a line using both ordinal and positional language to describe their position; for example, directly comparing heights and following directions using ordinal and positional language to line up in height order
• E4: describing a familiar journey across Country/Place using directional language

How to use this unit

Read the topic guide, use the teacher slide for instruction, then complete the Worksheet, Practice and Test. These three activities use the same eight-question unit bank.

Common mistakes to watch for

• Rushing to a rule before checking the concrete model, drawing or number sentence.
• Using the correct answer once but not being able to explain why it works.
• Mixing up similar vocabulary such as more/less, before/after, longer/shorter or equal groups/sharing.

International curriculum mapping

This table gives closest-topic mapping for search and planning. The Australian Curriculum code is exact; overseas entries are broad equivalents because each jurisdiction structures outcomes differently.

Related Year 1 Maths topics

• AC9M1N01: Numbers to 120
• AC9M1N02: Partitioning tens and ones
• AC9M1N03: Skip counting and equal groups
• AC9M1N04: Addition and subtraction within 20
• AC9M1N05: Additive problem solving and money
• AC9M1N06: Equal sharing and grouping
• AC9M1A01: Skip-counting pattern sequences
• AC9M1A02: Repeating patterns

Official curriculum references

• Australian Curriculum Version 9.0
• Victorian Curriculum F-10
• NSW Curriculum
• Common Core State Standards
• Next Generation Science Standards
• England National Curriculum
• New Zealand Curriculum
• NCERT textbooks