Skills Covered

How to Use This Pack

Five pages for Years 5 and 6 on rotating shapes on a square grid. On page 1 each shape is turned a quarter, half or three-quarter turn, clockwise or anticlockwise, about a dot that sits on one of its vertices or away from the shape, and students draw where it ends up. Page 2 shows shape A and where it ended up, B, with the direction of the turn given: students circle a quarter, half or three-quarter turn. Page 3 asks whether A was translated (slid), reflected (flipped) or rotated (turned) to B; only one of the three works for each pair. Page 4 is rotational symmetry: the order of eight shapes and designs, then three designs on a grid to finish with order 4 or order 2 about a dot. On page 5 students carry out two moves in a row, drawing the shape after each, and circle what stays the same and what changes.

In the Classroom

Trace a shape on tracing paper, put a pencil point on the centre and turn the paper a quarter turn at a time. Ask what happens to a shape turned about one of its own corners compared with a point away from it. For page 3, cut out a card shape and act out a slide, a flip and a turn: which one changes the way the shape faces, and which one turns it over?

At Home

Look for things that turn: a door handle, a tap, the hands of a clock, a fan. Ask how far they turned and which way. Find logos, hubcaps or flowers that look the same after part of a turn, and count how many times they fit onto themselves in one full turn.

Tips for Success

• Turn one vertex at a time: count its squares across and up from the centre, then turn that path
• A quarter turn moves across into up or down, and up or down into across
• A half turn is the same clockwise or anticlockwise
• Tracing paper and a pencil point on the centre make turns easy to check
• Slides, flips and turns never change a shape's size or angles