Stand and demonstrate the three turns yourself, pausing after each so the class can name where you face. Take two or three hands-up answers, not open call-outs.

The word to draw out is turn — an angle is about how far you turn, not how far you walk.

Use a real card pointer pinned at one end so it can only swing round a fixed point (or the large demonstration clock hand from your prep). Make the turns on the clock hand slowly, naming each one aloud:

• Turn it a full turn back to start. Say a full turn brings you back to where you began.
• Turn it a half turn, now facing the opposite way, pointing down.
• Turn it a quarter turn, now pointing to a corner.
• Turn it a three-quarter turn, three quarters of the way round to a different corner.

Then repeat the idea on a door. Open a classroom door wide and close it — same thing, turning around one fixed point, the hinge.

Hold out for pupils to notice the pointer only ever moves around the pin — it never slides. That fixed point is what makes it a turn.

Talk this one through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

Each pupil has a split-pin turning arm at their desk. One pupil shows each turn at the board with a turning arm while the class makes the same turn with their own arm and checks against the board pupil. Call the turns in order (quarter, half, full, three-quarter) so a pupil who loses track can follow along.

• Quarter turn — arm swings a quarter of the way round; watch pupils who over-swing.
• Half turn — ask what is the same as two quarter turns; revoice: so a half turn is two quarter turns joined together.
• Full turn — the arm comes right back to where it started.
• Three-quarter turn — the trickiest to predict; give five seconds of think-time before hands go up.

This is the practice round — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

Making the gaps: on plain paper, place a pattern block turned a quarter (then a half, then three quarters) from its upright position and draw around it. That outline is the gap — the block only fits when a pupil turns it back to match. For the mixed frame, draw around three blocks each set at a different turn. Use triangles or trapezoids for every outline. Squares look the same after a quarter turn, and squares, hexagons and rhombi look the same after a half turn, so those blocks fit without turning. Have these outlines ready before the lesson (also listed in Before the Lesson).

Real pattern blocks circulate at the desks. One pupil turns a block at the front to fit each gap while the class predicts. Before each block is slotted in, ask the class how much of a turn it needs, take two hands-up answers, then let the board pupil check. The four tasks rise in difficulty: a plain quarter turn, then a half, then a three-quarter, then a frame mixing all three.

• Hold out for pupils to name the turn (a quarter turn) rather than just showing it.
• The mixed frame is the one that lands the whole lesson — the class sees that different gaps need different amounts of turn.