Maths topic
Position, movement and transformation
What children learn in position, movement and transformation, from their first year of school to the end of primary, and the lessons to watch together.
What's taught, year by year
The steps in position, movement and transformation, in the order children usually meet them. Years are named as in Australia; the ages are a guide.
Before school ages 3–5
- Position words: in, on, under, next to. Use simple position words to say where a toy or person is.
Foundation ages 5–6
- Describe where things are: above, below, in front, behind. Describe the position of objects compared with each other.
Year 1 ages 6–7
- Left and right. Use left and right to describe position and turns.
- Give and follow directions. Give and follow simple directions using forwards, backwards and turns.
- Whole, half and quarter turns. Make and describe whole, half, quarter and three-quarter turns.
Year 2 ages 7–8
- Clockwise, anticlockwise and right-angle turns. Describe turns as clockwise or anticlockwise and count right-angle turns.
- Simple maps: locate places and follow a path. Find places on a simple map and describe a route between them.
- Flip, slide and turn a shape. Move a shape by flipping, sliding or turning it to make patterns.
Year 3 ages 8–9
- Line symmetry: find the mirror line. Fold or use a mirror to find lines of symmetry in shapes and pictures.
- Grid references on a map. Use letters and numbers such as B3 to find squares on a grid map.
Year 4 ages 9–10
- Complete a symmetric picture on a grid. Draw the other half of a shape or pattern across a mirror line.
- Compass directions: north, south, east, west. Use the four main compass points to describe position and direction.
- Coordinates in the first quadrant. Read and plot points using (x, y) on a grid.
- Plot points to draw a shape. Plot given coordinates and join them to make a polygon.
- Translate a shape on a grid. Slide a shape left, right, up or down a set number of squares.
- Reflect a shape in a mirror line on a grid. Reflect a shape in a horizontal or vertical line on squared paper.
Year 5 ages 10–11
- Rotational symmetry and its order. Find how many times a shape fits onto itself in one full turn.
- Rotate a shape about a point. Turn a shape a quarter or half turn about a point and draw where it lands.
- Eight-point compass and turns in degrees. Use NE, SE, SW, NW and turns in degrees to describe directions.
- Tessellations: shapes that fit with no gaps. Find shapes that cover a surface with no gaps or overlaps and make patterns.
Year 6 ages 11–12
- What changes after a move? Describe transformations. Name the move (translation, reflection, rotation) and say what stays the same.
- Combine two transformations. Predict and draw the result of two moves in a row.
- Coordinates in all four quadrants. Read and plot points with negative coordinates.
- Translate and reflect on a four-quadrant grid. Move shapes on a full coordinate grid and describe how the coordinates change.
- Map scales: find real distances. Use a map scale to work out the real distance between two places.
- Distance between points on a grid line. Find the distance between two points that share an x or y coordinate.