National curriculum content

• Describe positions on the full co-ordinate grid (all four quadrants)
• Draw and translate simple shapes on the co-ordinate plane, and reflect them in the axes

Lesson objectives

1. The first quadrant
2. Read and plot points in four quadrants
3. Solve problems with coordinates
4. Translations
5. Reflections

What do we want children to know?

Use knowledge to solve Reasoning and Problem Solving questions such as:

Working backwards

Two triangles have the following co-ordinates:

Triangle A: (3, 5)   (7, 5)    (4, 7)

Triangle B: (3, 1)  (7, 1)   (4, 3)

Describe the translation of triangle A to B and then from B to A.

Possible answers

Follow the clues. What could the missing co-ordinates of the shape be?

• The shape is a regular polygon
• The shape crosses all four quadrants
• At least three points have 0 in their co-ordinates
• One of the points is (10,10)

True or false?

Dexter has translated the rectangle ABCD 6 units down and 1 unit to the right to get to the yellow rectangle.

Explain your reasoning.   

Mathematical Talk

• Which axis do we look at first?
• Does joining up the vertices already given help you to draw the shape?
• Can you draw a shape in the first quadrant and describe the co-ordinates of the vertices to a friend?
• If (0,0) is the centre of the axis (the origin), which way do you move along the x-axis to find negative co-ordinates?
• Which way do you move along the y-axis to find negative co-ordinates?
• Which point are you going to look at when describing the translation?
• Does each vertex translate in the same way?
• How is reflecting different to translating?
• Can you reflect one vertex at a time? Does this make it easier to reflect the shape?
• Which axis are you going to use as the mirror line?