Year 6 · Coordinates, Reflection and Translation · Summary

Year 6 Coordinates, Reflection and Translation: summary and key words

Part of the Year 6 coordinates, reflection and translation chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page

Chapter summary

Skill	Method
Coordinates	Write (x, y): across first, then up or down. Positive is right or up, and negative is left or down.
Quadrants	First top right, second top left, third bottom left, fourth bottom right. Points on an axis are in no quadrant.
Plotting a shape	Plot every corner, then join the corners in order. Count the squares along the grid lines.
Missing corner	Use the across number and the up or down number of the two sides you can see.
Translation	Add the across move to x and the up or down move to y. Right and up add; left and down take away.
Reflection in the x-axis	The across number stays. The up or down number changes sign.
Reflection in the y-axis	The up or down number stays. The across number changes sign.
Lengths	A translation or a reflection keeps every length, so the shape keeps its size and shape.

I can write the coordinates of a point in any of the four quadrants, using negative numbers.
I can say which quadrant a point is in, and when a point is on an axis.
I can plot points and draw a shape from its corners on the coordinate plane.
I can find the length of a side that lies along a grid line, including one that crosses an axis.
I can translate a point or a shape, and describe a translation in words.
I can reflect a point or a shape in the x-axis, and in the y-axis.
I can explain that a translation or a reflection keeps the size and shape of a shape.

Coordinates: A pair of numbers (x, y) that gives the position of a point on a grid.
Origin: The point (0, 0), where the x-axis and the y-axis cross.
Quadrant: One of the four parts of the grid, numbered anticlockwise from the top right.
Translation: A slide of a shape. Every point moves the same distance in the same direction.
Reflection: A flip of a shape over a mirror line. Each point is the same distance from the mirror line, on the other side.
Mirror line: The line that a shape is reflected in. In this chapter it is an axis.
Image: The new shape or point after a translation or a reflection. The image of A is written A'.
Axis (plural axes): One of the two lines of the grid: the x-axis across, and the y-axis up and down.