An Introduction to Patterns

Ah patterns!  They are all around us, in our manicured landscaping, within the walls of the grocery store, and even in your Uncle's really ugly Thanksgiving Day tie.  Young children can recognize linear repeating patterns without much help from an adult, but they often must be shown how to look at the structure of the pattern in order to later recognize the more complex patterns required for algebraic thinking.


I have found the information like the attached article helpful in developing Rhombus Club curriculum.  In teaching patterns to Rhombus Kids, I like to start by letting them build confidence with repeating patterns.  They build them, they recognize them, we identify the pattern unit, and they can predict what comes next in the pattern.  By using different materials to make these patterns, the children see that there is more than color or shape that can make a pattern.  For example, we use magnets shaped like apples, stars, and turtles.  One pattern may be apple, turtle, apple turtle.  Another pattern may be apple, upside down apple, apple, upside down apple.  By using the same kind of magnet in a different way, the children learn that they must analyze what is happening in the pattern as well as what is making up the pattern, always noting what constitutes the pattern unit in order to predict what might come next.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Promoting+repeating+patterns+with+young+children--more+than+just...-a0169117953%22%3EPromoting   Repeating Patterns with Young Children--More Than Just Alternating Colours! Marina Papic explains how experiences in the early years of schooling should focus on identifying, justifying and transferring various patterns using a variety of materials if a sound understanding of patterning is to develop in students.