Megamaze

This activity focuses on length. Some students will have difficulty interpreting instructions for movement. An important point here is that north, south, east, and west stay constant irrespective of Crusty’s orientation. To develop the students’ understanding of this, play a compass version of the game Stern, Bow, Port, Starboard, labelling the walls of the school hall north, south, east, west.
Make sure that you have labelled the walls correctly.
Begin by giving the students instructions for pacing out letters of the alphabet. The students follow these instructions in line-dancing formation. For example:
“Ten steps north, five steps south, five steps east, five steps north, ten steps south. What letter have you walked out?” (H)
This will encourage students to visualise the path they are walking as they follow instructions.
A more competitive game is to shout compass directions, for example, “East”. The last student to touch the correct wall is out. Play continues until only one student remains. Students will enjoy creating their own maze and developing a set of directional instructions for someone else to follow.

Answers to Activity

The shortest route is:
3 cm east
6 cm north
2 cm east
1 cm south
1 cm east
1 cm south
2 cm east
3 cm south
2 cm east
1 cm south
1 cm west
1 cm south
2 cm east
1 cm south
1 cm east