The Seashell Playdatebox includes several Pattern Practice tools you can use to begin playing with and repeating patterns. The ability to recognize and create patterns typically develops by age four but could start earlier or later. A child’s brain usually has fun with a challenge it is ready for. If your grandchild resists, gets distracted easily, or refuses to play along, don’t fret. With time and additional brain development, this will be more and more fun.
What’s the Big Deal With Patterns?
Once you start making patterns, you’ll begin to see them everywhere: in the rhythm of the music you enjoy, in the design of buildings, in plants and leaves, and even in the system you use to put your clothes on every day. The ability to recognize a pattern translates into algebraic thinking, so it’s critical to success in math. A word is a recognizable pattern as well. C followed by A followed by T always spells CAT. A brain’s ability to store and recall a specific pattern is critical to reading success. The goal with this Playdate is to help a child’s brain have fun learning to create and duplicate patterns. Over time, her brain will be able to dream up and repeat more complex patterns, but for now, you can start with some really simple ones. Start with a simple ABAB pattern. See if she can duplicate it. Then, let her create a pattern for you to match.
Sand Slime Pattern Practice Games
The sensory texture of the sand slime and the mosaic tiles in the Seashell Playdatebox make these really fun tools for pattern practice. A grownup should supervise carefully, since the mosaic tiles and small seashells pose a choking hazard. You’ll find our recipe for sand slime here.
Recognizing Patterns Everywhere:
Of course, you can repeat these pattern games over and over using different objects:
- Stack up blocks by shape. (square, triangle, square, triangle)
- Line up toys by type (ball, car, truck, ball, car truck)
- Organize several pairs of shoes in your house first by size (small, big, big, small, big, big) then by color (red, blue, brown, white), and finally, smallest to largest
- Make a circle of food around the outside of your plate (carrot, carrot, pea, carrot, carrot pea)
- Practice with movement (jump, clap, clap, jump, clap, clap)
Practice Verbal Pattern Combinations
Here’s a trick question. Can you see the pattern in the sand slime above? Don’t see it? That’s because this was a verbal pattern. My grandson labeled the dark blue stones “Thomas,” the lighter blue ones, “Percy,” the white shells, “Anita” and the metallic shiny stones, “Gordon.” He repeated the names as he placed them into the slime in perfect verbal order: Thomas, Percy, Anita, Gordon; Thomas, Percy, Anita, Gordon. This was an “aha” moment for me. I thought he wasn’t getting my pattern lesson at all. He was, but his brain had no interest in my boring version of pattern-making:
Duplicating my pattern took him all of 35 seconds. After that, the game was boring.
Instead, his version of creating patterns (a version that was self-driven and play-based) lasted for closer to 15 minutes. This showed me that his brain is developing and creating patterns in a way that is perfectly age-appropriate for him. All I had to do was get out of the way with all of my formulas and pre-conceived notions of what a pattern looks like:
There is a system and a pattern in the placement of the stones and shells. The pattern may not be precisely mathematical, but it is clearly there.
This suggested to me that his brain is processing patterns in a way that is age-appropriate for him, and a lot more FUN!
Easy Pattern-making Practice
If your grandchild or child is ready for the next level of pattern-making, you might want to try this game, which is a precursor to making your own mosaic coaster or stepping stones. Keep supplies on hand for evenings when you need a 15-minute distraction while you make dinner or draft that last email before your workday ends.
You’ll need
- Contact Paper
- Small stones, buttons, shells, or other sensory items
A circle of Contact Paper will help hold shapes in place as your child experiments with creating different patterns with small parts.
Over time, a child’s abilities will refine and become more analytical. They’ll see patterns in colors, textures, shapes, sizes, and more. They’ll twist and manipulate the patterns to suit their own purposes. Jumbles of letters will become words on a page they can read. The’ll see that when they place several triangles back to back, it almost always forms a square. They’ll learn patterns for tying shoelaces, for making a peanut butter sandwich, for making their bed, for organizing their sock drawer.
Patterns are an essential and beautiful part of our lives. Please share your ideas and successes for teaching patterns in the comments below!