Position and direction - Making patterns with shapes - Worksheet

In the "Making Patterns with Shapes" lesson, part of a Year 6 Geometry series, children are encouraged to deepen their understanding of shape, position, and direction by engaging with patterns and sequences. The National Curriculum objective is to order and arrange combinations of mathematical objects, which in this case, are shapes. To facilitate the learning process, resources such as differentiated worksheets and teaching slides are provided. The vocabulary focuses on terms like patterns, repeating patterns, clockwise, anti-clockwise, quarter, half, three-quarters, and position, which are crucial for describing the transformations within the patterns.

During the lesson, students review their knowledge by describing and creating patterns that involve specific directions and turns. They use directional language to articulate the movements of shapes in the patterns, such as 'clockwise' and 'anti-clockwise', and quantify the turns as 'quarter', 'half', or 'three-quarters'. Key questions prompt students to analyze the patterns, predict the next shape, and identify any missing elements. The tasks range from completing simple patterns and describing the turns involved to tackling more complex sequences, with the goal of developing both fluency and precision in geometric reasoning and problem-solving. Through these activities, children learn to recognize and describe the spatial relationships and transformations that occur in repeating patterns.