Curriculum – Geometry and Spatial Sense
For students to identify and describe the location of an object, on a plane using letter-number coordinates
Context
- This game can be played as a teacher-led game or barrier game.
- If students are unfamiliar with coordinates, play the warm up game first.
Materials
- 1 Pentomino set per Player 1
- Multiple square tiles in 2 different colours per player
- Download: 1 Game board per player

Lesson
Part 1: Pentominoes on Grid
- Pairs of students sit facing each other, with a barrier in between.
- Player 1 secretly places 2 pentomino pieces on his/her/their game board (figure 1).
- Player 1 calls out the letter-number coordinates on which the pentomino is placed one at a time. Use 2 different colours of tiles, one for each pentomino shape (e.g., Place a yellow tile on A4). Player 2 follows the instruction and places the square tiles in the correct spot on his/her own game board.
- Repeat this process for each spot (e.g., Red tile on D3, yellow tile on A2, red tile on E3, etc).
- Play continues until the two pentomino shapes are created on Player 2’s game board (figure 2).
Part 2: Pentomino Battleships
- Player 1 secretly places two pentomino pieces (“battleships” on his/her/their game board (figure 3).
- Player 2 calls out a letter-number coordinate. Player 1 says whether it’s a hit or a miss. If it is a hit, Player 2 places a square tile of one colour (e.g., blue tile) on the target grid. If it’s a miss, Player 2 places a square tile of another colour (e.g., yellow) on the target grid.
- Players continue until the two pentomino battleships have been “sunk” (figure 4).


