Numbers & Shapes: Activity 5

Benefits for Your Child:

• Helps reinforce routines
• Identifies patterns in environment

Patterns are made up of sequences of colors, movements, objects, shapes, sizes, or sounds. Patterns are part of children’s everyday life and can be found in furniture, clothing, decorations, and artwork. They also are part of your child’s morning, evening and playtime routines. Mathematics is the recognition of patterns. As children learn to see and make patterns they begin to build a base for further understanding of repeatedly adding the same numbers, multiples, and multiplication.

Kindergarten Connection

In kindergarten, children will create, copy, and look at patterns to decide what comes next.

Activity: Pattern Hunt

Go on a pattern hunt around your house. Look for patterns in upholstery fabric, flooring, windows, wallpaper, curtains, bricks, blinds, tile, and light fixtures. Describe a few of the patterns for your child and make sure he/she sees the pattern. Now ask your child to find and describe different patterns.

More Ideas:

• Create your own patterns using movement (hop, hop, stop) or sound (clap, click, clap, click).
• Explore patterns in nature such as pinecones, flowers, shells, and leaves.
• When stopped at a traffic light, have your child guess what color the light will change to next.
• Point out the consistency in your child’s bedtime routine by saying, “Have you noticed that you always take a bath, put on your pajamas, have a snack, and then brush your teeth? That is a pattern!”
• Point out routines related to preparing food, doing chores, or driving to familiar places.

Tips:

• If your child has difficulty identifying a pattern, make the experience multi-sensory. Have your child add a physical movement as you name it and point to the elements in the pattern that he/she sees. For a green-and-white pattern in tile, your child might jump when you say “green” and sit when you say “white.”