Play the "Hidden Treasure" coordinate game with partners. Each student gets two sheets of grid paper with the x and y axis already labeled. One sheet is for secretly plotting a point, while the other sheet is for recording guesses of the other player's secret point. Students take turns guessing ordered pairs, trying to locate their partner's secret point. Students get hints from their partner saying, "Hot," or "Cold." Have students play the game multiple times. Circulate and assist students, making sure they are plotting the ordered pairs correctly by listing the x axis first and the y axis second.
Label ordered pairs of plotted objects. Give students grid paper with objects already plotted on them, such as letters of the alphabet, a sail boat or a turtle. Students have to correctly label the ordered pairs used to the graph the objects. For example, to graph a capital "L," the ordered pairs could be (2,5), (2,1) and (4,1). You would then connect the points in the order you graphed them to create the letter "L." Check students work for accuracy, making sure the x and y axis are listed in the correct ordered.
Match graphs of plotted objects with tables of ordered pairs. Give students several examples of plotted objects and tables of ordered pairs. The students have to analyze the tables of ordered pairs and try and match them with the correct plotted object. For example, in students compare ordered pairs of a square and a rectangle. In a square, the distance between point A and point B, point B and point C, point C and point D and point D to point A would have to be equal. Not so for a rectangle, because only two sides are congruent in a rectangle. An example of ordered pairs for a square could be (2,1), (2,3), (4,1) and (4,3), while a rectangle may look like (2,1), (2,2), (4,1) and (4,2).
Practice plotting ordered pairs. Have students draw a 10-by-10 coordinate grid on their personal dry erase boards. Call out random ordered pairs. Students plot the ordered pairs on the dry erase board and hold them up to be checked off for accuracy. Be sure students are plotting points in the correct order, x axis first, then y axis.