Coordinate Grids

As we are preparing our students for 4th grade as well as covering the oncoming Common Core, we are learning Coordinate Grids!

The first thing the students must learn is OVER THEN UP. We discuss you must go OVER to your friends house before you can go UP and play. Or a plane must move OVER a runway before going UP into the air. We practiced finding items using coordinates as well as writing the coordinates of it.

The students played the game Gridlock from Mathwire.com. Partners use a 6x6 coordinate grid, two different colored writing materials, and a dice. Partner 1 rolls the dice twice to get an ordered pair, and marks the spot on the game space grid. Partner two does the same. To win, you must get four dots in a row: horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The kids LOVED the game! Anything with a little competition will get my students going! I even put it as a "may do" activity when they are done with their morning work.