Naming Positions Left and Right

As adults we can easily describe an item as "first from the left" or "second from the right" without thinking about it too much, but for children this is another skill to be mastered. Once they are confident with ordinal numbers up to 10 and their abbreviated forms, they can have a go at the worksheets below.

Ideas for Learning

• Get physical! Find up to 10 children and give them all an ordinal number card to hold. At your signal - and depending on whether you call "from the left" or "from the right" - the children get themselves as quickly as possible into the correct order. Get them to call out their position and bob their knees or throw up their hands like a Mexican wave ... always good for a giggle! Once they are confident at this you can always challenge them. If they lined up from the left, call out "Who's third from the right?" and so on.
• Bring in the toys. Line up a collection of toys (cuddly toys or cars work well) facing you. Provide some instructions, such as "Move Teddy until he is third from the right" and so on. Give your child a set of our Mix and Match ordinal number cards and ask him to place all the cards "from the left" or "from the right" then ask him questions, such as "Where is the red car?".

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