Helping children recognise pattern

Patterns are all around. They help children see how things work together and help in predicting what happens next. Patterns help children become our future problem solvers. When children learn to recognize, copy and extend patterns they are taking a giant step into the world of math. However, repetition is needed for children to become proficient at this. A five or six year old may be able to recognize and recreate patterns but this will take time and practice. The use of a variety of manipulatives during the lesson is needed.

1.Divide the classroom into 3 stations. Place the strips of construction paper at the first station along with a drawing of an A-B pattern. Instruct the children to create a paper chain in the A-B pattern in front of them. Ask them how they could extend this pattern. This will test whether the child is able to reproduce and extend a given pattern.


2.Set up the second station with different color crayons. Instruct the children to sort the crayons in whatever way they desire. The children may think of grouping colors by darkness or lightness of the color, by different shades of the same color, etc. There is no wrong way to sort them. Ask the children to explain why the crayons are sorted in this way. This helps to reinforce reasoning skills.

3.Set up the third station with colored candies. This station can help the children recognize that there are patterns everywhere, even in the food we eat. Instruct the children to take a handful of the candies. Tell them to count how many are in their hand. Instruct the children to create groups from what they have. Then have them count how many are in each group. This introduces them to simple mathematics. Ask the children why they grouped the candies like this and how many are in each group. Then ask them how many they had all together.

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