Year 1 Local area: how do we read maps and plan routes? worksheet

“Finding places on the grid” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 1 geography unit “Local area: how do we read maps and plan routes?”, for children aged 5 to 6, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 26 to 31 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Finding places on the grid

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 1 · Geography · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can find places on a grid map and say where they are.

A Look back3 min

1.
Circle the missing compass point at the top of the picture.
NSEW
2.
Is it a physical or a human feature? Write each word in its column.
hilltreeshophouse
Physical Human
3.
Which is nearer to the school: the shop or the house? Circle one.
the shopthe house

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ali's school field has a pond. The map has letters along the bottom and numbers up the side. Let's find the pond.

Watch me

Start with the letter along the bottom. The pond is in column D.

Then go up to the number. The pond is in row 1.

So the pond is in square D1.

Now you

1.
Circle the square the shop is in.
A3A2C3

C Your turn6 min

Use the map. Circle the square for each place.

1.
Circle the square the school is in.
B2A2B1C2
2.
Circle the square the tree is in.
A3A2C3B3
3.
Circle the square the pond is in.
D1D3C1A1
4.
Circle the square to the right of the school.
C2A2B3C1

Say it out loud: Which letter did you look for first, and why? Say it to your grown-up.

D Spot the mistake3 min

Ali says: “The pond is at 1C, so I go up first, then across.”

1.
Circle the right way to write the pond's square.
C11CC2

E Think deeper3 min

A school field and playground seen from straight above, with trees along one side

1.
This picture is from above, like an aerial photograph. Name two places you can see. How can you tell what they are?

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Finding places on the grid · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. N If they circle S, they have the opposite way. Ask them to point to the top of the map and say the word.

2. Human: shop, house · Physical: hill, tree If they put tree under Human, ask: did people make the tree? Physical features are natural things like hills and trees.

3. the shop If they circle the house, ask them to count the squares from the school to each place. Nearer means fewer squares.

B

1. A3 If they circle A2, they stopped one square too low. Go up to the top row for the number.

C

1. B2 If they chose A2, they stopped one letter short. If they chose B1, they stopped one row short. Go across to B, then up to 2.

2. A3 If they chose C3, they went across to C, which is the park. Check the tree is in column A.

3. D1 If they chose D3, they went up to the top row. The pond is near the bottom, so count up from row 1.

4. C2 If they chose A2, they went left, not right. Right means across to a later letter in the same row.

D

1. C1 If they circle 1C, they read the number first. Always go across along the bottom first, then up the side.

E

1. Look for: Names two places from the picture, such as the field, playground or trees, with a clue such as shape or colour.

Words to use

Say“Which letter did you look for first? Let's find the letter along the bottom, then the number up the side.”

Instead of“Just tell them the answer, or say the square the wrong way round.”

After the sheet

Draw a simple grid of squares on paper and label the bottom with letters and the side with numbers. Put a toy or a stone in one square and ask your child to say its square, letter first.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Finding Squares on Our Map(with a plan)
Walking to the Park(with a plan)
Features on our route(with a plan)
Mapping My Route(with a plan)
Making Our Grounds Better(with a plan)

Every Year 1 geography worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

The full StudyDen plan adds the lessons themselves, marked as your child works, with the worksheets included. It is 7 days free, then £29.99 a month.

Get the worksheets Try the full plan free

Both start with a free account; you choose the plan when you sign up.