Skip to content
Codextroop TechnologiesCodexLab

Landmarks Help You Navigate

Big trees, fountains, and doorways are landmarks. Use them as signposts so you know where you are and which way to turn next.

Class 3 to 5beginner15 min3 lessons
By the end you will be able to
  • Name a landmark on a familiar route to school
  • Use a landmark in a direction sentence
  • Explain why landmarks help when the path has many turns

Finish first

Give Directions to a Friend
Topic contents

Lesson 1 of 3

Signposts you can see

A landmark is something easy to spot: a red post box, a tall slide, a painted mural. When every corner looks alike, landmarks tell you which corner you reached.

Directions can say turn left at the fountain, then forward until the bike rack. The landmark splits a long path into chunks your brain can hold.

Follow the step-flow animation. Watch a route broken into legs separated by landmark pictures.

Continue

Lesson 2 of 3

Choosing good landmarks

A good landmark is unique on your route. Do not pick another plain bush if there are twenty bushes. Pick the giant clock or the blue bridge.

Landmarks must stay put. A parked car might leave. A statue usually stays. Programs use fixed markers on grids for the same reason.

If a friend gets lost, ask which landmark they last saw. That one clue narrows where the wrong turn happened.

Continue

Lesson 3 of 3

Landmarks on grids

Grid maps use symbols like trees and rocks as landmarks even when they also block paths. They anchor your mental picture.

When you plan in the robot lab, say aloud: after the tree, turn right. It links the picture to the command list.

Next you will plan a full route from start to goal using every skill so far.

Continue

Practice

Work these out yourself

No answer key here on purpose: these are the questions worth thinking through before you move on. Open one and work it out.

0/3 attempted

Assessment

Check your understanding

Answer each question, then read the explanation. That is where the learning is.

0/4
  1. Question 1: What makes a useful landmark?
    Question 1 / 4

    What makes a useful landmark?

    Select an option first
  2. Question 2: Why split directions at landmarks?
    Question 2 / 4

    Why split directions at landmarks?

    Select an option first
  3. Question 3: A friend passed the mural but missed the turn after it. What does that tell you?
    Question 3 / 4

    A friend passed the mural but missed the turn after it. What does that tell you?

    Select an option first
  4. Question 4: On a grid map, a tree symbol can help you what?
    Question 4 / 4

    On a grid map, a tree symbol can help you what?

    Select an option first
4 of 4 questions left.

Finished this topic?

0 of 3 lessons marked done. Marking the topic complete ticks the rest.