I love when it comes time to learn about patterns. Patterns are such a fun and exciting math topic but also an important focus in the early stages of the development of algebraic thinking. Patterns in algebra falls into two broad categories: repeating patterns and growth patterns. When learning about repeating patterns, I love to get out lots of concrete materials e.g. shape blocks, unifix cubes, paddle pop sticks, toothpicks, counters, coloured pencils etc. I think it’s really important for children to have those concrete materials to manipulate when continuing or creating a repeating or growth pattern.
When teaching patterns to stage one, I emphasised the importance of the students recognising the rule that the pattern follows. It is one thing to be able to create a pattern but they need to be able to explain WHY it is a pattern. I found showing lots of non examples a great way to teach patterns as well. It shows a deeper level of understanding if a student can say “that is not a pattern because there is no rule that is repeated in it”.
A great online interactive game that teaches students about repeating and growth patterns is called Shape Patterns. My students had lots of fun completing the patterns in this problem solving game and what makes it even greater is that it can be differentiated. The game has 3 different levels that get progressively more complex with missing elements in different positions which was great for my different maths groups as they are ability based.
When we got to learning about number patterns, I started by modelling counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s on an interactive number chart. I ensured that when I modelled skip counting by these numbers that it was from any given number e.g. starting at 24 and skip counting by 2’s from there. This was important for students to see as usually in class when students are asked to skip count by a number they will start from ‘0’ and its just a matter of rote learning the numbers.
When we first started learning about number patterns we focused on skip counting. I found a fun and interactive way to do this was by using skip counting dominos. We had 5 different sets of dominos that skip counted by 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s and 10’s. My students had a great time lining up the dominos so that they were following the skip counting pattern.
A great way to teach students about the rule in number patterns is by playing the game roll a rule. Students roll a die and the number they land on is the number they put in the rule box e.g. if they roll a 4 the rule for their number pattern is plus 4. They roll the die again and the number they land on is the number their pattern starts with. An easy way to differentiate this activity is by getting students to roll the die 2 times to get a 2 digit number or 3 times to get a 3 digit number for their number pattern.
Another great way for students to learn about rules in number patterns is by using robot input and output stations. This is a fantastic way for students to visualise how the rule is applied to make a pattern. Identifying the rule is very important when it comes to recognising and creating number patterns so it’s important for students to visually see how the rule is used.
My students absolutely loved playing Pattern Bingo. This was a fun and engaging way to learn about finding the missing elements in number patterns. This activity is for 2-4 people. Each student is given a set of one coloured counters and a die. They start at the starting point on the board. When the first player rolls the die, they move that amount of spaces around the board. In the rectangle they land on, they have to identify the missing element in the number pattern. They then put their coloured counter on the number that is the missing element in the middle squares. When a player covers 4 squares in a row in the middle they call BINGO!
These activities for patterns plus more have been added to my TPT store for everyone to enjoy!