Are your students learning how to give and follow directions? Position Barrier Games are a fun, hands-on resource designed to help students build their skills in using positional language and directional instructions while working with a partner.

These games are perfect for supporting oral language development, listening comprehension and spatial reasoning. Students work in pairs with matching materials and a physical barrier between them. One student is the speaker and gives instructions using positional terms, while the other is the listener who follows those directions. Once complete, they remove the barrier and compare their grids to check for accuracy.

With six themed scenes included and both colour and black & white options available, this resource is flexible and easy to implement in your classroom. It can be used with laminated cards for repeat play or printed as a one-time cut-and-paste activity. The setup encourages clear communication, teamwork and vocabulary practice in a playful and structured way.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Use and understand positional and directional language
• ✅ Give and follow spoken instructions accurately
• ✅ Develop oral language, listening, and teamwork skills
• ✅ Strengthen spatial awareness and visual reasoning
• ✅ Compare and self-correct using peer feedback

What’s Included:

• Six themed barrier game scenes:
  • - Scuba Diving
  • - Searching for Bugs
  • - Grocery Shopping
  • - Riding in the Park
  • - At the Zoo
  • - Exploring Space
• Matching grids and picture pieces for each theme
• Colour and black & white versions for printing flexibility

Materials Needed:

• Printed game boards and picture pieces (A4 size)
• Thick card or laminator for reuse (optional)
• Scissors, glue and a simple barrier such as a folder or book

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use during maths or oral language rotations to reinforce direction-giving
• 💡 Pair students intentionally to support peer modelling and cooperative learning
• 💡 Incorporate into assessment for listening and spatial understanding
• 💡 Use black & white sets for students to colour and personalise
• 💡 Turn into a class competition by scoring how closely the grids match

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Model the game as a whole class using a projector before students try in pairs
• 💛 Store each scene in a labelled envelope or folder for easy reuse
• 💛 Use sentence stems like “Place the bug next to the tree” to support students
• 💛 Encourage students to swap roles and replay the same scene for extra practice

Position Barrier Games are an excellent way to build foundational language, listening and direction-following skills while keeping students engaged in cooperative, purposeful play.

Looking for more resources like this? Try our Position Memory Match.