Patterning

The skill of patterning is a developmental mile stone. This skill is many times mastered between the ages of 3-5 depending on the child's exposure. To promote the development of being able to pattern practice is needed. Being exposed to patterning in many different formats can be intriguing. In this exercise the students make a caterpillar pattern. To start out, have the students make the same pattern with the circles as on the card. After mastering this form of patterning the students can make their own patterns with the circles. A discussion can take place about what type of pattern is it? Each new color represents a new letter, so when looking at the two patterns in the picture we have an AB pattern and an AABC pattern. Sometime children can get really creative with their patterns. The key to this is practice. Have your children or students make patterns with toy counters, blocks, goldfish crackers, tricks cereal, or anything else that has a number of different items. Being able to see how long the pattern can be made without mistakes is great fun. If a mistake is noticed, have the child run through the pattern to see if they can notice where they have messed up and then help them discover how it can be fixed. Like any activity, make sure the child is enjoying themselves and not getting too discouraged when they have difficulties.