One of the things to keep in mind when teaching coordinates is the progression of knowledge and skills around this concept. "Along the corridor and up the stairs" works for Year 4 geometry work, but once the children start needing to apply this to all four quadrants, this learning device can fall short. It's better to embed their understanding of the x and y axes; understanding that the first coordinate in a pair of coordinates always refers to the x axis.
Embed the mathematical vocabulary throughout your teaching. Use the displays around the classroom (or even your classroom doors and windows) to highlight examples of horizontal and vertical lines.
Other Position and Direction and Movement vocabulary might include:
axis, x-axis, y-axis, intersection of axes, quadrant, coordinates, position, diagonal, left, right, up, down, translate, translation, reflect, reflection, congruent, incongruent.
Coordinates can be used alongside other areas of the curriculum to help create meaningful connections between the children's learning. For example, you could overlay an aerial photograph of your school with a coordinates grid to create a map. This could be used in a Geography fieldwork lesson to plan a safe fire-escape route, or in a PSHE lesson on your local community.
In our experience as educators we all know the value in allowing the children to physically manipulate concrete resources as they learn new concepts. Tape a grid on to your children's desks using masking tape and challenge them to move a counter to the correct coordinates, or mark the grid using dry-wipe pens. This can be especially effective when using coordinates to describe translations. Why not go a step further and create a giant grid for the children to place themselves at the correct coordinates?
