Year 1 Positional Language Slides That Build Directional Confidence

This Year 1 teaching slide deck introduces students to essential positional and directional language in a clear, visual and highly interactive way. Students explore key vocabulary such as forwards, backwards, left, right and straight ahead, before extending their understanding to positional terms like in front of and behind, as well as ordinal concepts like first, second and third. The inclusion of discussion prompts like, “How would you get from the classroom door to the teacher desk?” encourages students to apply language in familiar, real-world situations.

This resource also integrates movement-based learning through activities such as the “robot directions” task, where students follow step-by-step instructions to navigate a space. These opportunities not only reinforce understanding but also support oral language development, listening skills and early algorithmic thinking, making it a well-rounded addition to your maths lessons.

Creative Ways to Use This Resource for Teaching Directions

This slide deck offers much more than a standard lesson presentation—it can become a dynamic and memorable classroom experience when used creatively. Try incorporating it into your teaching directions lessons in the following ways:

• Human navigation challenge – Turn your classroom or playground into a life-size map. Students use the directional language from the slides to guide a classmate from one location to another.
• Robot obstacle course – Build a simple obstacle course and have students give precise step-by-step instructions, just like in the slide deck’s robot activity, to guide their “robot” through it.
• Peer teaching moments – Invite students to create their own direction questions inspired by the slides and quiz their classmates.
• Daily routine connections – Use moments like lining up, transitioning between activities or moving to lunch to reinforce terms like in front of, behind and ordinal positions.

These approaches help bring the concept to life, ensuring students actively use and retain their understanding of directions.

Direction and Movement Resource Download Options

Getting started with this direction and movement resource is simple. The slide deck is available as an editable PowerPoint File and Google Slides version to tailor the content to your students’ needs.

Use the Download button to access both formats. Please note that when selecting the Google Slides option, you will be prompted to make your own personal copy before editing.

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a TeachStarter collaborator.

More Year 1 Positional Language Resources

Don’t stop there! We’ve got positional language activities below.

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