Spatial reasoning – Why and how to put it at the heart of maths
The primary curriculum may be busy, but we can still work to put spatial reasoning at the centre of maths, says Jo Austen…
- by Jo Austen
- Lead Practitioner, author and ECT/ITT mentor based in East London
There is strong evidence linking young children’s spatial reasoning capability to later attainment in mathematics (Gifford, 2020).
Despite this, the former government went ahead and removed shape, space and measure from the EYFS Early Learning Goals in 2021. This risked this crucial area being de-emphasised in early years teaching and learning.
It therefore feels particularly important that its already limited position in the maths curriculum is not reduced.
Beyond this, we need to work smart and weave opportunities for spatial reasoning into the wider curriculum. Here are top tips to make this happen at your school.
How to emphasise spatial reasoning in your curriculum
Review and revisit
As teachers and school leaders, we need to be constantly aware of the difference between learning and performance.
In the short blocks of time allocated to shape and space in many curriculums, children may be extremely successful. However, this does not mean they have learned anything yet.
The new skills and knowledge need to be revisited at spaced intervals throughout the year. The best vehicles for doing this are short retrieval quizzes, starter activities and homework tasks.
Throughout longer blocks of work on topics such as place value, fractions or decimals, I’d still hope to see spatial reasoning questions popping up each week outside the ‘main’ part of daily lessons.
Use wet playtime
Wet playtime often means sitting everyone down and sticking on BBC iPlayer. However, a little bit of preparation can help us take advantage of the rainy playtimes that will inevitably come along.
Whatever boxes of construction materials you have (LEGO, mixed wooden blocks, straws and Blu Tack, etc.) can be preloaded with wet play challenges, ready to deploy when needed.
Can pupils build a pair of giraffes… a climbing frame… a staircase? Constructing things shouldn’t just be for EYFS and KS1 either. Any KS2 classroom will be improved by a box of buildable bits!
Play games
All primary teachers will have a bunch of whole-class games they like using to fill those odd few minutes here and there. Why not include a few spatial reasoning focused games amongst your options? Two of my favourites are Crocodile Crossing and Shapes Bingo.
How to play Crocodile Crossing
In any class with a carpet divided into some kind of grid, you can place ‘crocodiles’ at various points and challenge children to guide each other from one side to the other by giving precise instructions.
Play two versions with different rules: one involves children simply stepping left/right. The other insists upon children making half or quarter turns before further forward movement.
How to play Shape Bingo
Shape Bingo works like normal bingo, but using shapes instead of numbers. You can then call each shape by describing its properties. It’s a very simple game and a great way to get children visualising shapes and recalling crucial knowledge.
Cross-curricular links
We’re usually very good at recognising opportunities for reading and writing across the wider curriculum. But how often do we make connections to maths outside specific lessons?
Spatial reasoning actually turns up in several other subject areas, providing valuable further time for some essential concepts and skills.
In art and design, the national curriculum for Key Stage 1 includes the aim to develop techniques using shape, space and pattern.
In English, teaching prepositions of place allows us to further practise positional language such as “on top of”, “next to”, “underneath” and so on.
Physical theatre activities in drama are a great way to get all children thinking creatively about shape and space, using their bodies to make part of the setting or a given character.
There is a navigational aspect to the geography curriculum in both Key Stage 1 and 2, too. There’s opportunities to use compass directions. Pupils can also describe the location of something with relation to something else (“The palace is to the west of the lake but to the east of the forest”).
Finally, part of the computing curriculum requires children to solve navigational challenges, applying logical thinking to create algorithms and debug codes that aren’t working yet.
Resources for improving your spatial reasoning knowledge
Teaching maths well is not easy, and primary teachers are not always subject specialists. If we improve our own knowledge of spatial reasoning, we can take advantage of spontaneous ‘teachable moments’ that occur throughout the year.
We’re much more likely to ask children “Do you think we’ll all fit on that bus or should we wait for the next one?” on a school trip, or challenge them to pack a box of resources as efficiently as possible, if we ourselves have a secure understanding of why these things are useful learning opportunities.
The best resource I know for improving EYFS and KS1 teachers’ pedagogic subject knowledge in this area is the Early Childhood Maths Group’s free Spatial Reasoning Toolkit.
The NCETM has a very useful free Early Years progression chart for shape and space.
Teachers of older primary children should start with these too. Then delve into your year group’s section of the NCETM’s Primary Mastery Professional Development materials. These offer clear, detailed explanations of each ‘small step’ of learning.
Essential spatial reasoning vocabulary
Being able to accurately describe different spaces includes using some specific terminology, including:
- Location
- Shape
- Properties
- Movement
- Orientation
- Composition
- Decomposition
- Symmetry
- Scaling
- Perspective
Jo Austen is a lead practitioner in East London, focused on teaching and learning. His book on maths teaching, Small Numbers, Big Ideas (£16, John Catt Educational), is out now.
