I thought of this when I realised hey the way the desks are laid out looks like a grid. Each vertical desk is a block, when going horizontally desks are usually grouped by 2s so I consider them one block, also it's hard to walk between them so it's easier to do that.
Give out destination flashcards to students all over the class (e.g police station, park, school etc) and choose a students that will be the lost person.
They will go outside the classroom while you decide where the destination will be, make sure everyone sees where it is so they can give instructions to it, and be quiet so the person outside doesn't hear you.The person comes back inside and starts at their desk facing the board. The students give them instructions (of course starting off with 'turn left/right') and then phrases like "go straight for _ blocks." " "Go straight a little bit.... STOP." "You can see it on the ___."
If everyone is yelling directions it can be too noisy/confusing so I get a the kids to say one step per vertical desk groups.
- Do one or two rounds this way so they get the hang of it then make it harder. You will randomly move around and get in the students way (say there is an accident on that road) so the kids have to use an longer route or say phrases like 'go back.' You can move around more than once in each round and the kids love it.
The kids have a hard time remembering "Go straight for __ blocks" "'you can see it on the __" so I use a finger counting technique where I tell them to remember how many words the sentence has by putting up a finger for each word.