Imagine you wanted to tell a friend exactly where your house is on a grid map of your estate. Saying "near the green" or "the third row" is not quite enough. How could you give your friend a set of directions so clear that they land on the right house every single time?

The illustration shows four points on the grid. Look at each co-ordinate pair and where its point sits.

Today we explore together: I will call out a co-ordinate pair, and one pupil will come up and plot it on the grid. The rest of the class watches the board and decides whether the point landed on the right address.

Today we work through these challenges together: first plot a single point, then plot three points that join up to make a triangle, then complete a square where three corners are already placed, and finally plot four points that make a square yourself. We will check each one before moving on.

What we learned today

• A co-ordinate pair like (3, 4) is an exact address: go along the x-axis first, then up the y-axis.
• A point with a zero co-ordinate sits right on one of the axes.
• Order matters: (3, 4) and (4, 3) land in different places.